We'd been living in our “dream house” for 12 years but, it having been built in the 19th century, there was always something failing, breaking or otherwise needing repair. It was beginning to take it's toll, both financially and mentally. So we decided it was time to move on. With the impeccable timing that had us buy during a major financial crisis, turns out we would try to sell as the world experienced a global pandemic!
Obviously that's the main story you'll hear in this episode. The world went into lock-down, the kids stopped going to school and I stopped going into the office. But working for a company that manufactured highly sought after items like diapers and paper towels, unlike many others, I was in no danger of losing my job.
Having that stability on the work front was an immense blessing as we tried to sell our house while the world deteriorated into chaos. You'll hear that chaos in the next 56 minutes as the global, national and local situations changed by the day or even hour, particularly in March and April.
To keep my self sane, I walked every day in the Pennsylvania countryside, discovering and enjoying other people's podcasts, some of which you'll hear in this episode. I started listening to more music, some new but also older numbers that I curated into chronological order. The music jogged associated memories which I dug out from the internet and this series fell into shape, recorded under the original Brierly Hill 90210 monicker. Cotswolds Radio, recently established in my old stomping grounds of Northleach, were on a similar COVID-related journey and they started broadcasting the Cotswold Hills 90210 version of the show in October.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. As the year begins, while there are stories coming out of China of people with flu-like symptoms, here in the west, things are relatively calm as the main stories are President Trump's impeachment trial, the UKs impending withdrawal from the European Union and continuing tensions in the middle east.
Welcome to the calm before the storm. Welcome to 2020.
