This is my third year in review blogpost. I really enjoy doing these little round-ups, it’s fair to say this year had its challenges.

Travel

As you’ve likely guessed, not much travelling happened in 2020 due to the big C. In January I did manage to get in a 12 day trip to Morzine with some friends, which was suuuper fun. I did work for 1 or 2 days of the trip, but most of it was spent on the mountains riding with friends. The snow wasn’t that great when I arrived, you could see some gaps on the mountains where the snow hadn’t covered it yet. This meant going off-piste wasn’t really possible. But halfway through my trip 80cm of snow fell which led to a very fun few days, to the point where I hired a mountain guide for a day, adding to the adventure.

Once lockdown restrictions eased in the summer Adam and I were able to get out of the house for 2 little trips. The first being a wild camping night in the South Downs, we walked 18 miles then found a field to camp in overnight. After spending many months at home, this night in the wilderness felt absolutely incredible.

The second trip was a long weekend in South Devon. It started as a camping trip to East Prawle with Adam’s school friends, but I realised this was right near Kingsbridge so we extended the trip. Kingsbridge is where my Nan and Grandad lived when I was younger. My Grandad had a boat which we’d go out on all the time in the summer, making it always feel like a holiday. This trip was also very special as we stopped at Salcombe beach which is where my Grandad’s ashes were scattered and where we will (hopefully) scatter my Dad this summer. The weather over the weekend was really lovely, and hot so many dips in the sea to cool down happened.

Work

Bold statement, but I think 2020 was the most satisfying year of my career so far. I started the year splitting my time between codebar and freelance web dev work.

Things changed in early February when codebar got its charity status 🎉. I spent some weeks after this focusing on fundraising to get us in a place to pay someone full-time. The fact that codebar had survived for 7 years completely volunteer led is bonkers! Since 2013 we have helped over 12,000 people from minority groups learn to code for free, and have over 110 people running events. That is a lot of people and is amazing growth. But we were at max capacity, someone was desperately needed full-time. As more money was raised I was able to slowly phase out the web dev work to a point where by the end of the year I was working full-time on codebar.

This is an absolute dream, I love working on codebar so much. Doing this full-time makes me so excited for what I will be able to accomplish in 2021. If you want to read the codebar 2020 review you can find it here.

Other

  • I lost my Dad very suddenly a week before lockdown in March, which turned my world upside down. This meant 2020 was mainly filled with grief and trying to find out what my new normal is. He was a chef and I would often ring him up and ask him questions about something I was cooking. I’ve gone to do this a few times and each time my heart aches. This, combined with a lockdown, and being the person responsible for sorting out everything after he died has resulted in an extremely challenging year for me. No-one ever tells you what to do once someone dies, I now know but really wish I didn’t. I survived it though and what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Right?
  • I started therapy. After losing my Dad it took me a while to admit that I had severe PTSD. I had flashbacks that would keep me awake at night, broken and bad sleep patterns, was very irritable, and became very impatient. I experienced something extremely traumatic and getting professional help was one of the best decisions I made in 2020.
  • I moved to France! Being in London during the first lockdown made me realise that I no longer wanted to live there. I still love London, but I love the mountains more. This was also spurred on by the fact that when you lose someone suddenly you realise that life is very short, and it can be taken from you at any moment. I’ve become very cautious about time and how precious it is. The stars aligned as our London tenancy was coming to an end so we thought fuck it let’s go. If we don’t like it we can come back, or we’ll stay forever. Who knows!
  • I started running. I’ve never enjoyed running, but I think the need to get out during lockdown got desperate and I eventually started to enjoy it. I only run one 5/6km a week, so not a huge amount but enough to make me feel much better, both mentally and physically.
  • Having a base and being in lockdown meant I started a loving collection of plants. Not all survived but some have and I love them all like a parent loves their children (I’m guessing ha).
  • I played 120 hours of Animal Crossing. This really was a highlight of the first lockdown for me.

If you’ve got this far I’m sorry this blogpost wasn’t super cheery. But it’s a new year now and I have my fingers and toe crossed this one is better.

KC x

P.S Make sure to follow along with me and my adventures on Instagram. The below post is now where I live :)