Yokomatsu Family Blog: March 2021

Found this list from the year 2010, thought it would be a LAUGH people, or perhaps a huge cry, to write another one for this poor, sorry, year and then compare. First step is to extract the questions without reading too much of the last one's answers, wish me luck!

1. What did you do in 2020 that you'd never done before?

Oh. My. God.

Zoom. One of the words of the year! With family, with friends, with GISH team members for tasks most of all - and only twice for work! When I gave Yuu the list of requirements to switch to online lessons she gave up and we took the month off and went back full time in May. lol.

Also as of last night (Dec 6) I played a multi-player online game. Among Us. Those games have always intimidated me but I was a) very bored, b) it was a group of people I know, and c) a really easy game. It was a group of English teachers who live in this town.

But in general it wasn't so much things I hadn't *done* before as things I hadn't felt or experienced. The entire sensation of unprecedented things happening every day - losing work, shutdowns, border closures, trips canceled, Olympics postponed, etc, and worst of all - coping with this with three children in three different countries!

(In wrote about it every day in a diary form, which I lost! I had the first few entries only, missing the introduction I later wrote summing up how it started, and missing the bulk of entries through April and into May, when we started the school up again. I had also gone back and added extra info from daily facebook posts and comments - trailing the course of the change from feeling like it was just a more serious flu, to being really afraid for my life. And the conflict innate in the differing speeds with which others reached these points - or didn't. I had half a mind to reconstruct at least this part of it, from messenger and facebook. BUT then I found it again! It was in yahoo mail - as a draft sent to Lena, and I found it when I was searching for posts about Homegrown, the music festival she was going to go to on her birthday, which was canceled and we were talking about the tickets and I was searching for the ticket email when I found it - because it had the word Homegrown in it! I am stoked - I really was heartbroken it had gone, and I searched and searched for it, even downloading a file search program. OF COURSE I saved a copy! I don't trust this computer one bit to not crash on me, of course I would have saved it. I don't think it has every update, but I know I stopped writing around mid-May when we went back to IP (in-person) classes things got kind of back to normal, or at least unprecedented, shocking things stopped happening!)

2. Did you keep your New Year's Resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

Of course not. And of course. And they will be the same as they are every year, and just like every year I will honestly and faithfully believe that this year WILL be different and I will succeed this time.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

No, but I'm making up for the lack of babies with lots of doll play (Chuckette and Lolly; Yamenosuke; cleaning up the Bratz' hair). I felt sorry for people giving birth this year! (As of writing though, Ty and Fay's baby was born and Ken T had another baby)

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Yes, my Uncle John died in March, just before NZ's lockdown. His death precipitated a family debate about the advisability of attending the funeral, and if the funeral would even proceed, or if it would be limited to 10 family members only, as per then-under-discussion government guidelines. The funeral was shared on facebook, a first for me. Mum decided in the end not to go because of the Covid risk.

AFWJ members Sandra Shoji and Suzette Bradford and Janice Hosking and Rebecca Madore, daughter of a member. I knew her mother through AFWJ and Rebecca helped me work out how to order with Printpac for the AFWJ Journal, and helped me with errors and working out what they wanted. She was only 42, and had been diagnosed with cancer only 9 days before she died. Shocking. I watched her funeral online too, streaming on YouTube. Not long after, much to my shock, Angela Saeki, also 42, suddenly died, leaving two small children. I know too many AFWJ members who have died. Here in Kyushu Oonagh, Diane, Tamah and Laura. And I suppose Dodo but she was in her 90s at least. Kris though I didn't know her well, and the Pride and Prejudice game lady whose name I forgot! I only met her once but it was memorable - chatting online about the game, then I coincidentally sat next to her at the Friday dinner. We played the game later, she won! Her death just before Christmas that year was the first AFWJ member I knew who died, and it was shocking, she was in her 50s. And just this week, Libby Iida.

5. What countries did you visit?

I was in NZ for New Year, and briefly South Korea, the airport anyway. So at least I can write something in this space! My other trips were canceled! I was going to add two countries this year, China and the US. And I was going to return to NZ for Lena's graduation. All that was canceled by Covid of course. I was bitterly disappointed, but I'm okay now, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I will get back to traveling again soon - might be going to Singapore in spring with Joanna, or if not, I really want to go to Europe in summer, and for my 50th!

6. What would you like to have in 2021 that you didn't have in 2020?

Kind of obvious answer, freedom in a Covid-free world and a vaccine of course! Really, is there anything else right now?

7. What date from 2020 will remain etched in your memory, and why?

March 17, I think it was. This was the lowest in a series of lows, as lockdown began in NZ, schools closed in Japan, flights were canceled, and as a final blow, I lost my job. I seriously considered going back to NZ for the duration then, and almost kind of wish I had, although now I am appreciating being financially solvent.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

I don't know if I've achieved anything, it's been a year of hanging back, not moving forward. Getting the shed AND spare room AND clothes sorted I suppose! And not going crazy.

9. What was your biggest failure?

Letting the cheese ideas fall back, once again failing to go independent and break away from those users who just use me (my bosses). And not losing weight, again!

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

I survived the first year of the rona! Just a few ordinary colds. And the surgery of course, my first major surgery and 14 days in hospital, but there's a whole blog post about that!

11. What was the best thing you bought?

My new car, although it wasn't me who bought it, it was Kanji.

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?

Jacinda. I don't think anyone on the planet would disagree

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?

Guess. The orange menace. On a closer level, my so-called bosses.

14. Where did most of your money go?

For once, nowhere. I'm so used to spending it on travel, it took me a while to figure out what else you do with money. Champagne, good cheese, and a very merry Christmas!

15. What did you get really really really excited about?

Seeing my big girls. Well at the start of the year I was really really really excited about going to the US finally, seeing Amy, and San Fransisco, and stopping off in China, and going to NZ again and seeing Lena's prom or graduation, and maybe even Europe, and Greece... sigh... all that was going to be. By the end of the year I was just excited about getting my darlings back in my sight and being thankful we were together, healthy, and weathering this storm fairly well!

16. What song will always remind you of 2020?

Anything off Dua Lipa's Future Nostalgia, my album of the year. Levitating, Break my Heart, Physical, Don't Start Now, Good in Bed, Pretty Please. Finding, or not finding them at karaoke. Singing them loud and proud in the car. Love Again, Future Nostalgia, Hallucinate, Boys will be Boys, Cool.

17. Compared to this time last year are you:

i. happier or sadder?

Sadder. Much, much sadder

ii. fatter or thinner?

Thinner, believe it or not. Not by much though.

iii. richer or poorer?

Richer, despite it all! Not having as much to spend ON certainly makes a difference.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?

Exercise and reading. Sorting photos and memorabilia.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?

Bloody facebook and repetitive phone games!

20. How will you be spending Christmas?

With my family all together again! We went out for a lunch with friends, but spent the rest of the day with just us, including a wonderful - and very filling - turkey dinner.

21. Did you fall in love this year?

With music again. With both big girls out of the house and Erica constantly on earphones, it's taken me a while, but I'm getting back into the groove of listening to what I want to listen to. Making playlists, discovering new favorites and dusting off old ones for a nostalgia hit and to see what's passed the test of time.

22. How many one-night-stands?

I'm still trying to find a way to 're-think' this one like I did with Q No. 21... All-nighters? Just one. Saw the dawn after Josh's farewell party.

23. What was your favorite TV program?

Here's where I admit to joining the bandwagon and watching Tiger King. I enjoyed The Last Kingdom much more though, and Bridgerton I suppose. I also finally caught up with Stranger Things and fell in love with Korean drama Crashing Landing on You.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?

I can't think of anyone

25. What was the best book you read?

I can't remember so I'll go with the last book I read, I finally got around to reading the Bone People!

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?

Dua Lipa!

27. What did you want, and get?

The operation I suppose. And one other thing, that I know, and future me will too; a thing that hit a reset button and gave me a great deal of satisfaction, physically, mentally and emotionally.

28. What did you want, and not get?

My trips!!!!

29. What were your favorite films this year?

I finally got around to watching Atonement, and it was wonderful

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

Old enough. I went out for a lovely lunch to one of my favorite restaurants, right next door, Aya, with Kanji. Then I made myself a lovely cheese board with cheese - and a board - given to my by Amy, and ate it and drank bubbles while talking to Amy and Lena in a video chat, then ate a cake given to me by Kanji and Erica.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Freedom and global health

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010?

"Where did my other pair of jeans go?". Plus my uniform: black pants, print tunic and teacher bun

33. What kept you sane?

Hope. It'll be over soon. Thinking about, and planning for, what I will do when it is.

And Netflix. After being TV-free for about a decade (I meant it in that 2011 post that I had not watched TV all year) it's nice once again to sink yourself effortlessly into some distant world. And, as always, hot baths, sleeping, talking it out with friends - and yeah the occasional piss-up

34. What celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most

Uhtred! See above re Netflix. I really did enjoy The Last Kingdom, and he seriously is a stunningly good-looking man

35. What political issue stirred you the most?

Oh boy. The World seemed about to end, so I actually voted, for the first time since I was 19. I guess that counts as 'stirred up'. But I focussed a lot more on the virus, race relations and the unbelievable things coming out of that creature's mouth

36. Who did you miss?

Every damn thing. My daughters at first, though I got them back. All my family in NZ, wine and bitch sessions with my friends, everyone I know in Japan - there are people nearby who I haven't seen for a year or more! And this winter, I just missed the entire soul of New Zealand, never have I ached more for the gentle NZ summer and lifestyle

37. Who was the best new person you met?

Did I meet anyone new? People, what are they?

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2020

Nothing is certain.

39. What is something you changed your mind about in 2020?

Masks lol. Knowing. I am in a state of waiting for knowledge, I am not prepared to commit to any beliefs about the spread or prevention or best way to manage this, I think we will find out one day, and hopefully put some better plans in place for next time, but I'm actually content with not knowing yet, and especially not wanting to argue about it. For me, that is indeed a new feeling.

40. Quote that sums up your year

Unprecedented was certainly my word of the year! I'll have to think a bit more about a quote.

The Questions, for future reference, or for stealing!