On looking back on 2021

 Yes, I am still alive.

Despite my best intentions posting here dried up around September. The main reason for this was my new job, which started in July. For the first half of the year, I basically didn't have much to do at the temp job I was doing, which gave me time to read a lot of stuff online, gather links/ideas for posts, and draft material. Since then though I've been too busy at work to do any of this, and too tired to write much in the evenings. Having had the last two weeks off has given me time to reflect and compose this look back on the year. I can't promise that I'll post more in 2022, but you never know.

Work and career

 I started the year working 1 day a week as a supply teacher at a girl's school in Dartford, plus a bit of online ESL. This made things a bit tight, but things picked up in March when I got a part-time temp job as receptionist/administrator at an SEN school in Sevenoaks. Finally, in July I hot my current job as an exams/admissions officer, which I've been enjoying but has been hard work and has expanded to cover a lot of other stuff, and from next week I'll be doing it part-time and teaching the rest of the week (which I didn't really want to do but agreed to as a favour on the understanding that this is a one-time temporary change, for which they will also sign off my NQT year.

Studies

I spent 7 months doing a Graduate Certificate in History of Art and Architecture through Birkbeck, which kept me sane through lockdowns. I graduated with a merit which was a pleasant surprise, depending on how everything else goes I may go back next academic year and upgrade to a Graduate diploma.

Travel

Disappointing year, didn't get to go anywhere. I was planning on going to Malta for a few days in December but canceled due to the uncertainty over changing travel rules and not wanting to get stuck there for Christmas. I did go away for a long weekend with friends to Suffolk in November, and hopefully, next year will finally go overseas again.

Personal

My brothers wedding in August was a pleasant affair despite some prior dramas. I didn't meet anyone for the first half of the year and had one date around September that didn't go anyway. At this point, I'm close to giving up on meeting anyone or ever having a family.

Films, TV, and Music

Overall another crap year, with yet more woke crap ruining everything from Bond, Cowboy Bebop and the Matrix to name just three. I only went to the cinema 3 times, but they were all worth it- The French Dispatch, Dune, and Spiderman No Way Home. TV was just as bad, I hardly watched any western TV this year or bought any new music, instead getting into listening to Classic FM in the car. I'm hoping next year will see more of a pushback against all the woke garbage but am not holding my breath.

Politics

The biggest disappointments, with the Covid hysteria dominating events and Boris choosing the 'ho' (Princess Queen Nut Nut) over the 'bro' (Cummings), embracing the ecoloons, and killing off any hope of reforms. The hypocrisy of the recent revelations of the Christmas parties last year was the final icing on the turd, I really hope the fool goes soon next year and someone decent like Liz Truss replaces him.

Summary

Overall a shitty year, that managed to be worse than 2020. I would say things can only get better in 2022 but don't want to jinx things.

 




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

On covid-19 death statistics

Image
 I became aware of this published data a few weeks ago via this  Unherd  column. Since then I have checked occasionally for updated figures, and last week started to analyse the data. First I downloaded every data set from this  archive  page, going back to May 2020 (where the archived data begins, so note that Month will also include all deaths earlier in the year). I was particularly interested in page 3, the deaths by age, and pre-existing conditions. I put each week's figures into a single spreadsheet and made monthly total tables. I then calculated the percentages and made some graphs. I have just updated my data with this week's figures, which I present below.  First, here is this weeks data ( source ) And here is my % calculations for the totals to date: And here is my monthly summary data. Top left is total deaths with or without a pre-existing condition. The bottom left is broken down into age, I have simplified it into under or over 60. To the right in orange are per
Read more

On what if scenarios: London goes boom!

 Scott Lowther ponders this after viewing a clip of London getting wipe out by an orbital kinetic weapon (AKA Project Thor ). I started to leave a comment but as it got longer and longer I decided to post here instead. So, let's go through some of his questions and try to make a realistic prediction: First, he posits ' would this utterly trash Britain?' he also states ' London is responsible for a whole lot of the British economy, but it’s sorta the “fake” economy of financial stuff, not growing stuff or making stuff.' Well, first off there is the issue of all the banks being vaporized, along with all their ICT systems. I'd hope they have backups but it could be that the entire payments system ceases to function. The result for the rest of the UK would be no one would be able to use a credit or debit card, withdraw cash or even access their accounts. Guess we'd be back to cash pretty sharpish.  In addition, all the insurance underwriters (Lloyds, etc) wou
Read more

On murder stats

Image
 After reading Longrider's post earlier I had a look at the ONS data he linked to and decided to present it visually.   From the data set mentioned above, here are the figures of interest: And here is it presented graphically: Finally, here is the data for last year as a pie chart: Consider this whenever you hear someone in the media going on about how women are 'unsafe in our streets'
Read more