A good start to 2021

The new year has had a good start for me, all things considered. That’s not remarkable in itself, but it’s probably notable all the same when so little about the past 15+ months has been good. January is usually my best period of the year, so New Year’s Eve usually kicks off something good for me.

I stayed up alone (apart from the dogs…) on New Year’s Eve, something I’ve done most years of my life (adult life, anyway). I’ve always liked New Year’s Eve and the excitement I got from seeing an old year go, combined with the hope for the new one. I completely understand why others might not share my enthusiasm, like that they simply don’t like staying up late, or maybe it’s that it reinforces awareness that time moves quickly. To each their own.

Up until last year, I had one ritual: Nigel usually woke up at midnight so we could have our first kiss of the year. Last year, I improvised a solution since Nigel wasn’t there anymore, but this year I didn’t—though I startled the dogs with a yelp of joy at midnight.

The thing is, 2020 was my first full calendar year without Nigel. The first anniversary of his death was also in 2020, which only gave me one more reason to loathe the year. The truth is, those two facts—that 2020 was my first calendar without Nigel, and that the first anniversary of his death was also in 2020—were my main reasons for being glad to see the year end. On the other hand, the end of 2020 means all the “firsts” are now over, so there’s that.

New Year’s Day was fairly quiet for me: I went to feed my relatives’ cats while they were away, then went and got myself a “New Year’s Present” (which I shared on Instagram, but I’ll talk about it here later, once the project is done). A stop at the supermarket on the way home to pick up a few things, and that was it. Yep, a quiet and low-key day.

Yesterday I went out for lunch with a sister-in-law and my cousin-in-law, which was very nice. But it didn’t start out so great.

Yesterday morning I was going to fill my pill box for the week when and realised I’d run out of my blood-thinner pills. I’m very well aware that it’s my responsibility to take care of and monitor things like impending prescription refills, however, the chemist sends me a text when refills are due, and this time I didn’t get one (I’m guessing because of the holidays). I meant to follow-up early last week, but forgot.

This was a problem because the chemist was closed on Saturday, and they’re not open on Sundays. For all I know, they may be closed on Monday, too (which is the statutory holiday for January 2, since that fell on a Saturday this year – UPDATE: They were closed on Monday, Jan 4). Obviously I couldn’t wait, so I had to get “emergency” pills at the another chemist, but because they don’t have my prescription on file, I had to pay the full price of the drug, something like $5 per pill. By contrast, when I refill my prescriptions right now they’re free, but next month they go back to $5 per prescription until I hit my annual cap again. That means that most of the year $5 would buy me an entire month’s supply, not just one day.

I got enough pills to last me until Tuesday, when the chemist will probably be open again, and when I get my refills I’ll add an alert to my phone calendar to remind me to renew. Live and learn.

That means that lunch was an especially welcome and good time, not the least because it helped me calm down and re-centre after my panic over running out of very important pills. Plus the company was awesome, of course.

The place we went for lunch is at Te Awa, the enclosed mall that’s part of The Base shopping centre. I took advantage of that. I bought some shirts at a store with a 20% off New Year Sale, so I saved something like $30 overall. I also went to look for some shoes.

I went to a “cheap shoe place” and bought some that were what I’d call “casual dressy”, and some just for around the house. I have to wear something on my feet around the house because if I stub a toe, that can cause a gout attack. I wanted something other than slippers, and the shoes I got were fine for what I wanted. The store had a New Year Sale, so I saved a whopping $15.

After that, I went to sports store, as weird and out of character as that sounds, because I wanted to get some walking shoes. I want to start walking to help me lose the weight that the alcohol free beer has forced me to keep (and just to be healthier in general), but I didn’t have any shoes that were good for that. So, I bought two different pairs (so I have options), but with no New Year Sale specials, I spent far, far more than I would’ve liked. Knowing me, though, this will motivate me to actually go walking so that I get my money’s worth out of those shoes.

A final stop was the pet store so I could get more food for the babies, some treats, and a new water bowl (it has a flat edge, and so, it fits against the kitchen wall better and less intrusively than their old round one). They had a New Year Sale (well, actually, it was their Boxing Day Sale, and it lasts until January 6. Sigh.) and I saved $56.30 (plus another $22.72 “frequent feeder discount” which is basically a loyalty scheme; all up, my savings were $79.02). That was my best haul of the day, so I was glad that I deliberately chose to stock up while the sale was on.

Today is a stormy day (thunderstorms and rain), so I’ve stayed home. Apart from laundry, I haven’t done all that much today, which is kind of nice—as relaxing usually is. I don’t necessarily know that I’ll do more tomorrow, but that’s part of the adventure, I guess.

So, 2021 has had a good start. Right now, that’s enough.