How This Year's Gone

 Obviously, and I believe it's been widely agreed, only very few good things have occurred this year. I remember so much that happened during the first few months of 2020. One moment was when I had a jam session at Duffy's in Leicester (my hometown). The session was with some members of a music society at De Montfort University and I was the guitarist and vocalist. At the time, I was in the middle of finishing a Masters in Creative Writing. It was a performance of a song I wrote called Marching Down The Street which I wrote eight years ago, back when I was studying for my bachelor's at Northampton University. Of course, being that the song was entirely original, none of the society's members were familiar with it and they did their very best to keep up with the chord sequences and so forth. The performance kept the students entertained, yet did spark some surprise. The song has a bit of a military theme to it. Somehow and for some reason, one of the students said to me that it reminded him of Bob The Builder. I was rather surprised by his response and I said something like; "really? I was pretty more influenced by the Sherman Brothers". The student was like "the Sherman Brothers?" and I was like "yeah, they wrote for the soundtracks of Mary Poppins, the Jungle Book, and so forth." I remember talking to my girlfriend about the experience. I even spoke to some friends from a local filmmaking society about it. When I mentioned the "comparison to Bob The Builder", Matt, who's one of the members, make a bit of a joke which sounded something like; "I guess that, next, they'd mention Postman Pat".

Speaking of the film society, firstly, in case you're wondering, I refer to the Leicester Filmmaker's Hub, formed following the unfortunate defunct of Seven/Five Productions. Next, I should mention that ironically, I still remember to this day. These include the one I just mentioned earlier. Also, another discussion I remember is when one of the members brought up his nostalgic experiences, which includes a list of hip-hop/rap artists he grew up listening to. 50 Cent was one of them. As soon as the name came up, I then asked; "Didn't 50 Cent once sample the theme tune to Thomas The Tank Engine/Thomas & Friends?" Neither had any idea, but one of my friends then showed a picture of the titular character with 50 Cent's face displayed on it, which we found very amusing. Speaking of the show which I personally am not a fan of, this prompted me to later construct a video in which I express my personal review of the show. It's uploaded on one of my alternative YouTube accounts.

The last few months spent with my girlfriend were the most magical moments of this year. In addition to films, we went to see Little Women and 1917, both of which we enjoyed. She also showed me a movie on a streaming site called Contagion. The latter could easily relate to the current situation and my girlfriend was extremely worried about it before you know what happened. Other moments include attending her graduation, our date we had on Valentine's Day, and when we went to see Bryan Ferry at De Montfort Hall.

Of course, all of this was before the biggie of this year commenced. I unfortunately and unsurprisingly can't defend 2020, and don't even get me started on the Covid-19 Lockdown. I do feel for the victims, but I also do feel for those whose mental health has deteriorated since then and those who rely on genuine social lives to keep them sane.

As stated above, only very few positive things have occurred since we had our freedoms confiscated from us. One is that I have gained a decent grade for my Master's course. Another, a weekend break in Skegness, Another, I now have full-time hours which have earned me enough to afford my own home. And finally, and today, I've been doing a bit of work with the local food bank and made a new friend.

And by the way, Merry Christmas, and here's hoping we'll regain our genuine normality again.