Happy New Year lads. I’ve had a Christmas I’d rather forget due to isolation / Covid tests / close contacts / etc with family members and in-laws. We’ve played by the rules and suffered because everyone else didn’t.
This time last year I was donating money off the forums generosity to a charity for my uncle and to a hospice that helped @backinatracksuit’s mother. And along the way this year was happy to help raise a clatter of money that will help both @RaymondCrotty and @Locke.
2020 was a cunt of a year but I actually appreciated the slowdown and appreciation for traditional values. We became more conscious about health and family. Exercise became more important and those of us with kids got more time with them than we’ve ever had before. I’ve explored areas on my doorstep I’d have driven by without even thinking of.
And during tough times, this forum of freaks kept us all same. I remember meticulously planning a 10km route that gave me the best chance of breaking 50 mins and then refusing to stop with tiredness for fear of abuse from a bunch of lads who I mainly don’t know and would never meet. It might sound weird but it spurred me on. @caulifloweredneanderthal told me to run up a hill and now I go trail running once a week as a result. This would never have happened before.
Anyway, I’ve no idea what the point of this post is other than to wish you all well and to say thank you. There’s a bond on this site that is hard to explain to anyone who’s never posted here. A lad gets cancer and we row behind him. A lad tells a story about his son losing a football in the sea and he’s open to abuse from all sides. Pure TFK at its finest.
Happy 2021 folks. A difficult one comes to a terribly agonising end but these are the slings and arrows of it. I’ve enjoyed every day of it here though from the fortitudes of @iron_mike to the embarrassments of @the_mixer_walsh. There’s a great, loyal bunch of lads here that pull together at moments of crisis which is the true barometer of a forums worth. Thanks to Rocko and Bandage for the VAR monitoring. HNY all.
Happy new year lads. It’s been a shit year all told. Mama J hit Beaumont on the second of January.spent 2 and a half months there til she got turned into a nursing home cos covid hit. She was given up for dead before doing a @Lazarus and finally got home around June I think? (Who knows what happened when this year…)
My business hit the skids on 12th March. Thriving business, 3 employees apart from us at the time. Done. Shut down. Still not open.
I’ve swayed between not giving a fuck/anger/happiness/depression about it all. And worry about the folks getting covid because neither of them would have good odds. I’ve benefited from the time off in lots of ways, particularly thinking about what matters in life. Obviously looking after my own family is number 1, it actually amazes me how much of a cunt I can be if something threatens that. Aside from that, its connections with friends. Otherwise it’s all pointless anyway.
What has been good is the pure joy of dropping my kids to school every day. Fantastic gift of time(not always used right). Its made me realise that I should finally stop driving round the country in the Berlingo at some stage and get someone else to do it. But it’s hard to let go of your baby.
Tfk is a crutch, usually a healthy one. I thank you all for the abuse and also the support. It keeps us alive. I should probably do it less. I’m also gambling way too much. But sure if there’s nothing wrong then there’s nothing to fix.
The new lockdown hit me hard for 2 days of pure anger and fucking depression. Feeling fucking stupid for not having a job that is covid proof. Missed a mortgage payment the other day cc @iron_mike (but accidentally) but it still brought home how this shit has left a sizeable proportion of society with a year long gap in their financial lives. For us it will be at least a year and a half.
But we’re all healthy ish. And myself and mrs J are much stronger for the extra time we’ve spent together not killing one another. She’s got her demons and I’ve got mine and we help each other through.
