WTF 2020?!

I'm not a big holiday spirit cheerer and on top of that, certainly not a lover of christmas songs either, but I've crossed one that I actually like and, most of all, is perfectly describing our lives this year. Ladies and gentlemen, in case you don't know her yet, I'm giving you Whitney Avalon, the voice of an angel with the mouth of a sailor or the beautiful genius behind Princess rap battle series (you definitely need to check those out as well). 

But for this holidays Whitney graced us with the song simply titled "WTF 2020?!", and boy, it is relatable.

"In January we made plans for what we'd do this year"

That's actually more true to me than I'd want it to be. My friend and I were taking a little cold trip to Bulgarian spa town. The whole idea for it pop up while we were discussing visiting our friends in Jordan later on but felt we definitely need another escape before that. It was a freezing cold morning in Sofia, we were getting breakfast in a cosy café just outside our hotel before going to pick up our car from the airport, and while at it we were browsing trough European countries we haven't visit yet and figuring out where we can easily go next without visa restrictions.

But soon visa restrictions turned into restrictions of completely different kind.

I've already told you about my favourite trip, staying with my friends in Helmsley, Yorkshire, but unfortunately, beside quick weekend escape to Bulgaria, that was also covering most of my travels for this year. I skipped on my friend's birthday party in Porto in March, I still regret not going while reminding myself Portugal closed down exactly on the day of my return flight.

So, stuck in London it was. But considering the whole world situation, mine wasn't even that bad. Me and my friend got a whole house for ourselves, my friend turned out to be an excellent chef loving to experiment with cooking, and me, of course loving to eat whatever there is. I had some online work, so I could easily stay at home and still receive some income, the weather was just starting to warm up and I spent most of the days sitting outside on our sunny terrace drinking endless amounts of coffee. Of course, since this whole home bound was such a big change to my regular run around life, I still had to complain about it, but the real downfall and reality check came to me when my friend suddenly decided to move out, and there I was, left alone all until the summer.

I survived (obviously), and with the first direct flight available returned back to my family to attend my cousin's wedding. I remember being picked up from the airport on this beautiful hot summer day of 1st of July and my first desire back on the ground was to see the sea only couple kilometers away. I was practically already wearing a bathing attire and once we arrived to the beach, there was nothing stopping me from submerging into blue Adriatic water.

Couple of weeks later we headed to a proper summer retreat with two weeks trailer camping by the sea. The water was suddenly not so appealing and as usually to cold for me, but we had a wonderful time, especially on my birthday that against all odds I got a chance to celebrate with my family.

I've spend most of the summer, and autumn staying at my grandparent not doing anything special. I actually adored time away from the world, bad news and internet, and while I lost contact with pretty much anyone I know, I found some time for more creative projects, such as drawing and writing, and eventually, when I figured out the old sewing machine there is also working, my own collection of safety masks in all colours and patterns.

At the turn of the seasons we did a little spontaneous road trip around north of Slovenia, discovering hidden and not so touristically polluted gems. And before I knew it, willingly or not (yes, I was still deciding on my last evening before the flight if I'm actually going) I was back to London. Even though I was firstly at great doubts about my decision it soon turned out to be a pretty good one, as our country went into complete lockdown only days after my departure. While here, to this day we're still leading a pretty normal life, and not to forget I was graced with some awesome housemates that brought so much fun and excitement to my quarantine life, I certainly wouldn't want to trade that.

Maybe we mostly realized how well we match when the holiday season arrived and compared to majority of consuming world no one of us was excited about it. We never bothered getting a tree or put up decoration. To me this is actually first time spending holidays in such way, as for the last few years I've always been working, especially for the new year's eve, and all years before that I've spend them with my family.

But once christmas was already over, some neighbors on our street rapidly got rid of their falling apart tree, that we took "in", to our backyard because it's too big and messy for the house. Finally, yesterday, on almost the last day of the year, we actually decorated it, put up some lights and even scatter some other randomly found décor around the house.

The spirit is up and now I'm only excited too see what we'll have for our last day's dinner. And most likely I've successfully avoided all the terrible holiday songs, although I might be able to list tree besides Whitney's WTF 2020!? that I actually like.

Firstly, you can never go wrong with Vitas, if you like him as much as me of course and not dislike him as much as the rest of my household. But here is the christmas version of his most famous song.

Secondarily this gem. The song is regularly cheesy, basically just about getting a kiss at midnight for new year's eve, but oh when the word to give in this case and also some Latin languages comes out as "Die". So there you have a chorus of the song telling you to "die, die, die" in a very cheerful holiday spirit that I find extremely disturbingly exciting.

And thirdly, and this time with no sarcasm, this beautiful piece I've only discovered last year. It was the crown of every party I worked at during holiday season, when crowd gathered in group hug and sang along before heading home. Yes, the song is the usual morbid and messed up to my standard preference, but I just found the tune extremely pleasurable and lyrics way more realistic and relatable then any other, making it genuinely beautiful and heartbreaking.

Like in the songs, last and first days are perfect to reflect. Of course finishing the year comes with certain hopes and dreams, plans for the future (well, not really, I've never had future plans, but I felt like this is a proper place to write this cheesy line), and most of all desire for travel and chance to regain our freedom.

Or, to finish with some well spirited Whitney:

"Just gotta get to New Year's Eve!" That's cute, however

This might simply be how bad life is forever

Whoever's writing this hellish rollercoaster plot

Could you stop? You sadistic twisted crackpot!

So much bullshit that we hated

It seems almost calculated

This is more than just bad luck

So 2020, what the fuck?