2020 in Pictures. Where was I last year?

2020. Well.. That one was a blast, wasn\’t it?

I guess what could sum up my year would be: Montreal – My couch.

I was in my couch. All year. Stuck at home.

That would not exactly be true though, but compared to my big plans for my 30th year, everything went down the wrong tube. I guess, like most of you too.

I had this big picture in my head where for my 30th year I would go to Patagonia, Ushuaia, Argentina… It has been a dream for a while now. I almost had everything planned. I was just too little prepared physically to go on my birthday so I decided to go at the end of 2020 where I would have time to book the camping spots I wanted and do some training to get in shape. But hey, how little did I know that I might not be able to go for a long while now… Anyhow, it is what it is so let\’s talk about what happened instead of what could have.

Lots of people will say they accomplished a lot during this pandemic. They did sport, DIY stuff, learned something, thought about their lives, bought a flat… I guess it was not the same for me at all.

Doing sport at home? Well, I couldn\’t. I tried at the beginning, yes. But I injured myself doing yoga or whatever in the 9 square meters room I was living in. And all the osteopaths and physiologists were closed so I got stuck with a back injury and vertigos for almost two weeks until they started taking emergencies (and hopefully for me vertigos were an emergency!). I went back to running at some point when the weather allowed it but I guess everyone was doing it and it started to scare me because I didn\’t know if the heavy breathing while running could give you COVID-19 or not.

Learn something? I guess I learned how to do macrame nots. And not a lot, just a little bit enough to do bracelets. I also learned a bit of patisserie (bakery) by watching all the seasons of \”Le meilleur Pâtissier\” which is a French reality TV for a baking contest. I now know what a ganache montée is (not sure I\’ll be able to make one though!). Oh and I did NOT get into bread making as 99% of the population. I\’ve done bread before and it\’s not a hobby I like.

Thought about my life? Yes, maybe. But COVID-19 didn\’t made me reconsider my life. I didn\’t wait for COVID-19 to do it. My mojo or whatever has always been: if you don\’t want to wake up in the morning change something. You don\’t like your job? Change your job. I\’ve always done that, it is not just a sentence I say for people to think I am cool. I know what I want in life and I make everything I can to get there. It takes sacrifices sometimes but if it makes you happy, then it is all that matters right? So yes, I did think about my life but except thinking I just turned 30 and I am stuck at home for an undefined period of time and that I would probably end up on my own with cats because, let\’s talk about it, dating and COVID-19 don\’t really go well together. Especially when you are a bit hypochondriac as me. Except that, I was doing ok with my life.

I worked a lot, on side projects, especially the foosball website I am doing. It is taking forever now because my motivation across this nine months of lockdown went a bit low and when I could see people, I would just do it instead of working. I was already stuck on my computer in my room everyday, after two months, my will to still be on my computer kind of disappeared. But the website is mostly done now, it\’s really about lots of fine tuning.

But all in all, working from home was not a big change for me. I\’ve been working remotely almost all my working life. I have been self employed for years and even after, I often had the possibility of working from home. From what I know, working from home was good but not that great. I like going to the office, having a reason to dress up in the morning. So on one side I was glad to be home so I wouldn\’t have to maybe catch the virus because of co-workers or else, but working from home in a small room, with six other roommates, with the internet going off each time someone was putting the microwave on…. Well. How to say it was not the greatest work experience.

As some of you know, I moved because of it. And because living with some people who were not willing to make the same sacrifices as you was not that great. I was scared to go in the kitchen or I didn\’t want to meet anyone. I was cleaning everything and nothing. It was not me. I am not like that person I was during that time of the pandemic and I decided it was enough. So I moved. Twice actually. I just move in December in another flat. On my own this time. I don\’t know if I will like it. I don\’t even think I\’ll be there after July but you know, I needed a roof under my head and my roommate wanted to move out in December… So I did too.

If you want to read more about COVID-19 in Montreal, I wrote an article just about that to not pollute this one too much. It\’s right here.

All in all, I moved twice, I quit my job (It\’s a regular thing apparently, check last year\’s post) and found a new one, I bought a van, I got older and even with a pandemic, the earth is still turning.

Let\’s hope 2021 will be better. I am not ending my 30th year as I intended but I\’ll make sure the first one out of this virus will be my 30th I was supposed to live.

Bye bye 2020 and cheers to 2021.

January 2020 – Montréal, Canada

February 2020 – Iceland

Iceland for my 30th birthday. One of my forever dream was to see northern lights. What a show! I wrote three articles about it so far here, here and here.

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March 2020 – Montréal, Canada

April 2020 – Montréal, Canada

May 2020 – Montréal, Canada

June 2020 – Montréal, Canada

July 2020 – Mégantic, Québec.

August 2020 – Ontario, Canada

September 2020 – Mauricie, Québec

October 2020 – Montréal, Canada

Photoshoot with my old roommate Sofi with a hat from MTLJTM

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November 2020 – Montréal, Canada

December 2020 – Montréal, Canada

All in all, I made it through 2020 as I could. I just hope 2021 will be the better year. We will see.

Thank you again for following my adventures and my blog. I know I didn\’t posted much this year but life got out of hands again. I have so many stories about Iceland and Ontario that I haven\’t told yet. Maybe when we are in a lockdown again this winter I will have time…

How was your year?

Cheers 2021. I couldn\’t wait for you to arrive.