Happy New Year!
…Well, this might sound like a repeat of last year’s New Year’s message: I hope you saw the New Year in with your loved ones in a safe place. This time last year, much of Australia was ablaze with bushfires – and this year it’s the coronavirus, not only in Australia but across the world. I’m happy to see the back of 2020 now, and hopefully the year 2021 will bring hope to all of us.
I’m glad, in a way, that I was studying fulltime when this global pandemic forced the whole world into shutdown. The diploma course I was undertaking had to be switched from face-to-face to video link from April onwards, but at least it gave me a purpose and something to focus on during isolation. My studies kept me very busy, and that’s why I’ve been unable to update my blog as often as I would have liked.
Another thing that made this past year extra hectic was my move – from a 2-bedroom apartment to a 1-bedder. With international border closures in place, it had just become impossible for me to find a housemate to share the 2-bedroom unit I was renting with. So I finally bit the bullet and decided to downsize to live on my own.
This move, ironically, has been made possible thanks to COVID-19, as it has pushed the rents in Sydney down for the first time in a long time. I’m still paying a bit over my budget for my current place, but it’s much better than having to cover the whole rent for a 2-bedroom apartment. (To which my father in Japan innocently remarked: “But the rent for your 1-bedroom is still not half that of the 2-bedroom rent?” Well, that’s the whole point I was getting at in my Analogue Dinosaur’s Rant #4!)
Now that I’ve completed my studies and settled down in my new home, one of my New Year’s resolutions would be to add more items to my website! (No more excuses, I know… :p)