As we come out of the toughest of years on the anniversary of our first lockdown, whilst feeling slightly giddy with excitement of doing all the things we love again, we need to reflect on the pandemics deep toll, mourn those we’ve lost and mark the service of our wonderful NHS Staff.
We must take a moment to acknowledge how in adversity we found strength, as friends, neighbours and communities have come together to help each other throughout this ordeal.
How life’s simple pleasures such as seeing friends, eating in restaurants, attending a live sporting event and/or concert were snatched away from us. How quickly we had to adapt to our new way of living adjust to online meetings, online business and online shopping and online meeting of friends. I do think we have all had our fill of ‘online’ to a certain extent and cannot wait for the moments we can hug our loved ones and see for real those tears of laughter.
Coronavirus lead us to an explosion of new words too, such as “self-isolating”, “pandemic”, “quarantine”, “lockdown”, PPE, social distancing and “key workers”, bubbles, to mention but a few. Then we have the new phrases that seem to crop up on a daily basis such as “covidiot” (someone ignoring public health advice), “covideo party”(online parties via Zoom or Skype), and “covexit” (the strategy for exiting lockdown), not forgetting Coronavirus being described as “the ‘rona”.
We all continue to remain vigilant whilst praising the NHS vaccination programme which has brought with it some hope of better times to come.
It is certainly a time to count our blessings.
Please also take time to read our article which approaches the 12 months of lockdown from an investments perspective, covering:
• A brief timeline with some of the key dates and announcements over the last 12 months
• Look at global markets and why the UK is behind
• Looking at the importance of remaining invested and the approach we take in retaining sufficient cash.
As always, we wish you all well, continue to take care and we are here for you if you need us.
