Wow, the month went by like it never happened. January was somewhat a try-hard-to-be-productive month for me. If anything, I tried to make the best out of the situation because I spent the first 2 lockdowns crying over the things that could have happened. This time, I learnt that my feelings are my responsibilities and if I want to feel better or do better, I have the power to make those changes, with patience of course and from the comfort of my own home.
How are you and how have you been through this lockdown?
We went house hunting & now we’re moving!
My partner and I moved to where we are currently living since I left university in 2019. When we moved, I was still looking for my first full time job. We chose this town as it was a town close to London within our budget and is a town where we can easily commute to work as both of us work in London (well I was looking for a job in the city). The train from where we live now goes straight to Kings Cross and Kings Cross St Pancras station.
The original plan was that we were only supposed to live here for about 6 months and then move somewhere else after. We got too comfortable and COVID-19 happened.
Fast forward a year after we were supposed to move, We started house hunting. It was fun but one hell of a stressful experience for us because for some reason, just after we signed the contract, the landlord broke our agreement for someone they know. This isn’t the first time that this has happened to us. Before we moved into our current house, our previous landlord did the same. This has been a pattern with any house we ever looked at and secured.
However, with that said, there is always something better waiting on the other side, believe it or not it has always been the case. At that moment I might not be grateful that we lost the house but me being me, I kept going and never gave up on searching for another house we can call home, we found a better house from it, pet friendly of course. It was also stressful because the old landlord literally told us that we can give our notice to our current landlord, two hours after he broke the news (broke our agreement).
We got our new house still within our budget and for a much better deal than we expected compared to the house that we first secured. Can’t thank him enough for breaking our agreement!
The house is so much better as it’ll be about a five minutes walk to the train station and there is a train to Euston every 15 minutes. With 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1 cloak room, a kitchen and 3 balconies, I can’t ask for much more! Did I mention that there is also a park just 3 minutes from our house and a canal within 10 minutes walk!
I never found estate agents to be helpful until I discovered Kingshills based in Amersham. They’re the most helpful guys I’ve ever come across and would put my stamp and recommend them to anyone, any day.
We’re getting a pet!
If you were to ask me if I had to choose between a dog and a cat, I would not be able to choose one as I love them both.
Before even thinking of getting a pet, I never knew that we have to be on a waiting list to get one. Since I was obsessively looking for a pet cat, I was lucky enough to stumble across an ad for a cat litter that was yet to be born (maybe that’s because I spend all evening looking through the same pages and refreshing the page for a new listing).
Our kitten was born on Sunday 7th February 2020 at 4am. 8 weeks until our baby can come home. We’ll be meeting our baby virtually this Saturday and I am so excited!
Corrections, we’re no longer getting a kitten from the breeder as she suddenly increased the price by £400 without telling us. I found out as I was about to pay the deposit. Her reason was that others were selling it at a much higher price but the difference between her and other sellers are that the kittens from other sellers will be microchipped and registered whereas hers won’t be. Therefore, her reasons are invalid as she doesn’t have a reason to be charging extra. I pointed that out to her and she completely ignored me. I am fine with that as I know I am not going to support greedy breeders. Lesson learnt but anyways, we’re rehoming a 10 months old cat instead. He’ll be 11 months old when we collect him. This makes me very happy because although the last thing I wanted to do was to support a breeder, the breed that I am looking for isn’t very easy to come across. Once we saw this good boi, we immediately contacted the owner and we agreed to re-home him with us.
I signed up for a masters degree in digital marketing
I have always been someone who loved a bit of a challenge and loved to learn new things. With COVID-19 and the countless lockdowns that are forced upon us here in the UK gave me so much more time to basically 〰️ do nothing 〰️
With that, I applied to do a masters course at Arden University to study digital marketing. I am currently working as a digital and content marketer at a Fintech firm. Everything I know as of now is self taught so I felt the need to fill in that gap. As much as I believe that I can progress my career in this industry, it’s always nice to learn and be certain that I’ve filled all the gaps.
I reflected on what I did each lockdown
As someone who is always busy doing something to get one step closer to one of the many goals I have, I don’t celebrate my small achievements enough. One evening, I took out my notebook and wrote down my highlights just so I could see that I didn’t not do anything but had actually achieved something throughout the lockdown.
Lockdown 1:
✅ Learnt sewing
✅ Learnt to sew dresses and tops
✅ Learn to sew headband and managed to sell it over at Craftology by Bolly
✅ Learnt to sew face masks (tested many patterns until I found one perfect one)
✅ Started a handmade business (Craftology by Bolly)
Lockdown 2:
✅ Learnt to make earrings with polymer clay
✅ Learnt to draw
✅ Got a new job at a Fintech firm
✅ Got two new tattoos
Lockdown 3:
✅ Applied for a masters degree at an online university studying digital marketing
✅ Put a deposit on a kitten we are getting in March
✅ Went house hunting, secured a house, and the landlord broke our agreement
✅ Went house hunting again, a week later, secured a much better house
✅ Collecting keys to our new house on the 22nd February 2021
✅ Booked for a cosmetic surgery that I will be undertaking in March (Keloid removal)
✅ I became debt free! (Paid off my student account overdraft – my only debt)
What I’m looking forward to
✅ Fully moving from our current flat to our new house on the 1st March 2021
✅ Getting my keloid removed on the 12th March 2021
✅ Picking up our kitten on the 31st March 2021
✅ Starting my masters in April 2021
✅ Reading Money: A User’s Guide and learning to better invest my money
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