Catching up

Sorry for the long break between posts this year.  What a crazy whirl wind year 2020 has been. 

In February, my boyfriend, Rob and I celebrated 1 year together.  :)  It has been a fantastic year together.  I truly lucked out.  

At the start of March, I successfully defended my thesis!  :D  I am now Dr. Natalie.  I think it has a nice ring to it.  I got to present my work with a slide show and then went through my thesis with question and answers.  Rob and I celebrated with lunch and drinks and a huge sigh of relief it was over.  I miss my project though.  I really enjoyed my topic.  In March, I also started a research assistant post.  Luckily, I could work from home with the post.  This post was focused on exercise, so it was nice going back to my undergraduate days.  

I celebrated my birthday while in quarantine, probably like a lot of people this year.  I didn't mind.  I got to skype family.  I got coffee from a café and dinner from the pizza place on my block and after dinner I had a very British birthday cake of Collin the Caterpillar!  :D  It was a nice relaxing day.  

However, 5 days after my birthday I landed in the hospital.  Happy belated birthday to me!  It started with a trip to the eye doctor because I was seeing spots only at night when I closed my eyes.  Next thing I am in the hospital being told I need a lumbar puncture because there was pressure around the brain and swelling along my optic nerves.  So there I was, in a hospital room, scared to death in the middle of the pandemic, and not able to have hospital visitors.  I do have the most amazing boyfriend though.  The food was rubbish and I had no clothes for the next few days.  He was generous enough to make me dinner and bring me clean clothes each night.  He stood outside my window and we got to talk on the phone.  Yeah, I truly lucked out.  :)  He is a real trooper driving all that way that week and putting up with my stress over the situation.  Unfortunately, the medical mystery still continues.  I have had CT and MRI scans and waiting results from the MRI.  I have had eye exams and the pressure has been decreased, but the swelling is still there a bit.  Fingers crossed for results that provide answers.  

Graduation would have been in July.  A little bummed I didn't get to walk, but hopefully next year this mess will have settled down and graduation will be back on. Sad my family couldn't come, but hopefully next year they will come and celebrate with me!  The local café gave free strawberries and cream milkshake (or coffee in my case) for graduating!  That was good.  

Most of the places have opened back up, but it is still a crazy time.  Outside of work and writing papers, I have been able to catch up on a lot of TV and movies.  I finished Game of Thrones, Sense 8, The Witcher, Cursed, and probably some more.  I highly recommend Sense 8.  I really liked that show.  I introduced Rob to the world of ice hockey with the Mighty Ducks and Miracle.  I have also taken up Zumba and have been doing that 3-5 times a week- some with the leisure center instructors over Zoom and some with Youtube videos.  That has been fun. 

In August the government introduced a eat out to help out scheme, where your meal is 50% off Monday through Wednesday at participating places and if you sit in.  I have been taking advantage of that through weekly coffee get togethers with friends and some cheap meals before hospital appointments.  Today, my coffee was 1.47£ and it was great!  That is probably one of the cheapest coffees I have ever had here.  It was nice.  I also went to a work lunch and walk in the castle gardens today.  That was lovely.  It was also anxiety provoking too.  In the castle grounds there is a long pond, and on the walk way tons of ducks.  Luckily, it rained yesterday so the walkway was muddy and happened to be that way where all the ducks were sitting.  So I let the 2 guys walk close to the ducks and I walked in the grass.  I survived!  It was a beautiful garden.  My lunch- chicken salad had vegetables that were grown in the garden.  It was good.  

Trees leading up the ton-of-duck- pond

Vegetable garden in the castle grounds.  

Hopefully the next few months will be calm and answers will come.  I hope you all are safe and healthy and I hope it stays that way.  

Love to all