And I'm on my way!

Seasons Greetings from Fiona 2020 

Hello! and hope you're having the best break you can despite everything....

The blog I wrote this time last year was mostly about my wonderful mum, who died at the age of 93 a year last October.  This year, too, has pretty much all been about my wonderful mum.  I’m kind of glad that she didn’t have to live through the pandemic, but of course my sister or I would have gone and lived with her from when it all kicked off, which would have been lovely.  She was unfailingly happy, kind, and generous. (Here she is at her 90th birthday teaparty).

We held a Zoom Stonesetting for her in July, with lots of family, which was absolutely lovely, and with the help of a work colleague I made a ‘sound and photo collage’ about her which included her friends reminding us of her happiness and warmth, AND a recording of her own grandmother singing a Yiddish song!    We then held a REAL stonesetting for her in October, where the people at the graveside were limited to six – close family only – but we had some more people joining us on Zoom, and we had a nice picnic in a park afterwards (the best we could have under the circumstances!)

I think we did her proud within the legal limits. I used to talk to her pretty much daily, so that has been missing in my life (though I’m now trying to emulate her and talk daily to MY lovely daughter Anna).

I retired from both of my jobs at the end of September, though I didn’t quite finish the report I was meant to be working on for one of my jobs till the end of November, oops.  I had a couple of lovely retirement parties on Zoom and got given the Booker Prize shortlist as a fab retirement present. When I gave both jobs a year’s notice, I had a plan which would have involved me sitting on my terrace from October to March, just reading books and dreaming…. and then deciding on a nice ‘retirement project’ to start with in April.    As it was, I’ve slept in my own bed every single day since 14^th March, and even done the exact same 3 mile walk round the ‘river loop’ every day (except one) since 2^nd April.  

It turns out that although I thought I loved travelling, in fact I actually love staying still.  I’ve learned names of all the plants in the neighbourhood (with the help of lovely friends Carol and Tina who’ve done some of the walks with me on Zoom).  My cat has been very happy to have me at home, and my terrace garden looked amazing in the summer, with courgettes and tomatoes grown from seed (a first for me!) and lots of flowers in new planters.

Every so often – when I reached 100 and 500 miles on the ‘loop walk’ – I donated some money to the Trussell Trust, which supports food banks, and campaigns for a world when food banks won’t be necessary.   On Christmas Eve  I reached 800 miles on this loop (!) so if anyone would like to donate to the Trussell Trust in my name the link is here. I’m hoping I’ll end up doing the walk every day for a whole year, up to the beginning of April, learning a year’s worth of plants – it seems a fitting thing to do in such a strange year.  

When I retired everyone said that I wouldn’t actually ‘stop’.  It’s true, I’m not that good at sitting with my feet up.  Since the pandemic started I became a bit of a Zoom expert through my job, organising lots of online events for work, and I have been leading tech teams at some conferences I've been involved in outside work, and at a Klezmer music festival.  I’ve decided that I need to share my skills, so I’ve been delivering Zoom training to anyone who wants it (coming up again on Tuesdays in January and February,)  The training is free but I’m inviting donations in aid of the Trussell Trust and also in aid of Preston Windrush Generation Emergency Response, which cooks food weekly for elderly and vulnerable members of Preston’s Afro-Caribbean community.  I’ve been part of a weekly Black Lives Matter discussion group meeting in my cohousing project since June, and we’ve been meeting up (on Zoom, again!)  with some of Preston Windrush group recently and doing some stuff with them – which has been very illuminating.    

I’ve also been organising a concert in aid of a new centrefor refugees and asylum seekers in Lancaster, which will be happening on 2^nd January (also on Zoom), with a fabulous Syrian viola player joining some local Lancaster musicians who are playing Klezmer, European and Balkan music, as well as music from the north west of England.       (Do come!)

It’s very nice to live in a cohousing project at these times. We normally (though who knows what ‘normal’ means) have a common house where we meet up and share meals and celebrations.  Instead, this year we’ve done ‘advent windows’ – each day in December a different one of us has unveiled an arty window piece, and hosted neighbours at a socially distanced outdoor gathering at 5 p.m.   I did a ‘Chanukah-dvent’ window – and on Day One, with one candle ‘burning’ on my window display and one candle on the chanukiah in the window, I served latkes, doughnuts and chocolate money to my neighbours – including some of the kids who’d ‘done it at school that day’ and knew the story – hooray!!  Here’s a pic of ‘day two’.

Thanks for reading this far…good luck to us all with Brexit, Covid19 and its variant(s), New Lockdowns, and whatever else is about to come and hit us on the heads.

Love, Fiona

Fundraising link www.tinyurl.com/fionasfundraising
Zoom training link www.tinyurl.com/fionazoomtraining
2nd Jan Concert link www.tinyurl.com/lancasterconcert
Mum’s sound and photo collage: https://tinyurl.com/phyllisfrankvideo