What a year, but now what?

12 months ago, to the day, we were sat in our awning at Bladdon Chains. We were surrounded by our friends, left over Christmas food and festive drinks. Back then we didn’t worry about social distancing or the wearing of face masks. In fact, we were all huddled together to keep warm and to share the food and drinks. Fast forward to today and its quite a different story. I’m sat at home, in front of my Mac, with no one around me.

It’s amazing how different the world is just 12 months later. In-fact thinking of our circle of friends sat in that awning, it’s now a completely different dynamic. From those close friends, one is divorced, one lost their job, two sold their caravans, one bought a motorhome and two lost their parents, while one other thinks the rest of the group are assholes (Merry Christmas to you by the way 😂 …) And yet throughout all of this, I’m closer to that group of people than I’ve ever been, whilst we have never been so far apart.

2020 can be called many things, forgettable, a disaster or even just plain horrible. For us it’s been the ultimate expression of “good intentions”. In that awning, in between the cheese, the ham and bottles of port, we planned and intended to do so much this year. We were all heading to France in one mighty convoy, having a beach holiday in Wales and a private gathering to really let our hair down and do all the things you can’t do on a campsite – including not parking up to the peg, and dogs off leads! Closer to home we also planned to explore the Certificated Sites and Locations of the national clubs even more. We did start with great enthusiasm staying at a CL back in February. I recall at that CL, listening to the radio while we sat and watched red kites majestically hovering around us. It was a good holiday and at that moment set the tone and expectations for the year ahead.

Just 4 weeks later however, I found myself cancelling 5 of our planned breaks, including France. As it turned out, we only went away 5 times in the caravan and covered a miserable 427miles with the caravan (as noted by our tracker) in the entire year. Looking at our mileage tracker – the gaps in the summer make for some rather depressing viewing of zero miles travelled for 4 months.

It would be easy to wallow in the bad news of 2020, it really would. Sure, we succumbed to illness, and yes, we had wobbles of despair. Sadly, we lost friends, neighbours and work colleagues to the pandemic. And for someone who will remain nameless, even blew up their tow car (I’m not saying another word on that!), but we fared better than most. We had each other, we had our health, and we remained safe. In fact, we survived the 12 months relatively unscathed.

During the year I resurrected some of my passions and interests. I built a model train, got back into my comic collection, repaired and restored some retro computers & game consoles and generally geeked out. (The fruits of my labour can be seen on my personal Instagram account. http://instagram.com/dan_trudgian ) For me it was a cathartic process and one I really enjoyed. On the other hand Angela started crafting again, making some rather impressive pieces of art. Which brings me onto the conclusion of this blog post. What next?

With vaccines on the horizon, a breath of fresh thinking and a COVID secure caravanning infrastructure, what now for us? Do we pick up where we left off in February? Do we make plans now, or like we have been doing thus far, take each day as it comes? I’m acutely aware that some sites are already booked up for the year ahead and it looks like the campsites will be running at capacity throughout the warmer months. There are a few things I would love to try in 2021 (keeping shhh for the moment) which will really push us to explore more and go about our holidays in a different manner. All very exciting, hopefully you will see this come to fruition in the Spring. Not forgetting of course, the nameless person needs to replace the tow car for one that doesn’t have remnants of turbo veins in the DPF!

So how does 2021 look for you? Are you making plans or waiting to see what is going to happen? Right now, we seem to be on the verge of another peak in cases, rumours about staggered schools starts and perhaps yet another lockdown. As ever, your thoughts are really welcomed, and I’m sure you will be in the same predicament as us.

Anyway, that’s it from me on this cold December day. I’m off for more cheese and crackers, and maybe some of the ham I cooked up this Christmas and perhaps a cheeky Facetime with my friends later.

I’d just like to wish each one of you a safe New year and hopefully a brighter 2021. And as for 2020, well you’ll be a syllabus item for schools in years to come. Nuff said!