If you were to start chatting to me about 2020, it's probably the only time you'd ever catch me hoping that we'd be talking about cricket...
I'm surely not the only one to have thought that 2020 has passed in a flash. It's certainly a strange by-product of a global pandemic, to feel that we've all been living in a state of being half awake.
From a personal place, yeah it's certainly been tough at points - I did lose out on a good amount of work that I was hugely excited to jump into, along with all of those small jobs that hopefully would have been cropping up throughout the year to always keep me on my toes, and to push me creatively.
Lockdown has come with a few benefits though. Always being at home has brought about a few new projects - I've home-brewed some beer, my coffee-making game is stronger than ever, and I've started dressing like a toddler again with a wardrobe purely limited to tie-dye and dungarees
That's not to say that I've been sat on my arse on the whole time though, as much as I'd like to have spent the last 6 months binge-watching Kim's Convenience and smashing through multipacks of jaffa cakes like a McVities-endorsed competitive eater. So I thought I'd put together a bit of a reminder to myself, more than anything else, of how this bizzare time has in some way been a productive one.
After a handful of photography gigs and a stint working on BBC Young Musician, lockdown kicked off with me being laid off from a job I never got the chance to start. I was due to be spending a good chunk of the year working on CBBC's The Dengineers, traipsing around the country in a van, building dens in back gardens and filming kids getting all excited about how they'd been gifted a mini David Attenborough shrine or a Taj Mahal scale model set up next to the cornucopia planters. Anyway, the job was off the cards, postponed into the depths of 2021, and I spent a couple of weeks making a dent into the stack of books I'd been gifted for Christmas. Anna and I made that classic couple-y decision to both live at mine for lockdown, thinking it'd only be a few weeks and that's just about a bearable amount of time to stand each other.
One day mid-April I got a call from friend/goth mom/CV reference Cara, about a bit of work on BBC Bitesize Daily - "I asked for a professional editor and they gave me your CV lol". Suddenly the day job was back on the cards, and there began a couple of months of discovering the joys of working form home, smashing through unhealthy amounts of coffee and earning my stripes in a series of unnecessary zoom calls. The joys. The content we put out was excellent, though, and made me realise that there's a whole cult of primary school kids out there that know way more about Shakespeare and Indus civilisation than I do.
If you've got little ones, there's definitely some great content worth checking out.
2020's highlight was due to be a road trip down the west coast of the USA, with me and Anna realising our dream (read: my dream) of bowling down Highway One in a pickup truck. Since a pesky bat in China put a firm stop to that plan, we settled for the next best thing; camping in Wales.
It's an unwritten truth that there's no better holiday than pitching up in a massive field full of strangers, drinking warm beer and vibing to the unasked-for trance music bellowing across from the other side of the campsite at 2am. Pembrokeshire proved a stunning backdrop for some hikes, surf, and a chance to take the drone up for a spin, too.
It's been bizarre to see so many months pass by without the slightest scent of a gig. It's horrible to see a music industry in tatters, and come the return of safe, live gigs, I'll be queuing at the door in a fashion reminiscent of an early-2010s iPhone launch. I've been hugely grateful to have worked in the industry for the past few years, photographing some unbelievably talented artists, and doing a good bit of playing and teaching too.
So naturally I was thrilled to get the chance to work with Cafe Spice, the wonderful folk three-piece, on some socially-distanced promo shoots. An actual shoot! With actual musicians! Boy it was like the good old days of February once again!
July saw me taking a move back to the homeland, settling back down in South Wales. It's been amazing to get the chance to delve into what makes this part of the world so wonderful, and thrown against the backdrop of a pretty grim world all-round, I've loved rediscovering this place once again.
It's also been fantastic to get involved with more and more musicians adapting to the new normal. September saw me filming the utterly wonderful Kantos Chamber Choir, streaming a socially-distanced concert from a field in Cheshire. Having the chance to hear live music again was so powerful - even if it was combined with some minor suburn and the sound of some angry sheep in the next field over.
Who knows really what the next few months are going to throw up. 2020 has felt a bit like when you're standing at the top of a diving board, staggering around back and forth, utterly terrified of taking the jump and just keeping things ticking over. Hopefully 2021 will be the time to take the plunge off into the deep end.