Welcome 2022

Happy New Year!

The global Covid pandemic continued through 2021 and in fact, Metro Manila had to go back into MECQ at some point during the year. This meant that there were still a lot of limitations as to what people could do. That said, there were still many positive and memorable things that happened last year. 

Probably the most important thing that happened last year was that I finally got vaccinated. Not only that, my family all got fully vaccinated as well. I also started blogging a whole lot more (I only had 27 posted in 2020 but I more than doubled my output last year with 65 posts). I still haven't traveled since the pandemic hit so I instead started to write about some trips I took before I began this blog. I have so far written about my visits to the UK and China, along with the Europe trip I took with my mom (which included Italy, Greece, and France). I also started posting throwback travel pics on social media.

I finally subscribed to Netflix and to HBO Go Asia. I also watched a few Filipino films on IWant TFC. While I haven't played physical board games face-to-face with my friends, I have played online versions that were purchased on Steam, often by myself playing against AI but sometimes playing with my friends. I also started playing Axie Infinity. All this time spent blogging about past trips, watching shows on online platforms, and playing online games meant that I had less time to read, but I still did get to read two books: Before the Fall by Noah Hawley and A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles.

Despite the pandemic, life has had to move forward and this is evidenced by sporting events that have resumed after taking a break in 2020. The Olympics were finally held in Tokyo and Hidilyn Diaz finally gave the Philippines its first gold medal by winning the women's 55 kg weightlifting event. Three more Filipinos - Nesthy Petecio, Eumir Marcial, and Carlo Paalam - also won Olympic medals, all in boxing. Gymnast Carlos Yulo also took home a gold and a silver at the Gymnastics World Championships.

As is to be expected, it wasn't all good. I lost my dear friend Karen and my family lost our dog. I saw  several family and friends share social media posts about loss, some due to Covid and some due to other reasons. As more and more people get vaccinated, our health care system in the Philippines has become less overwhelmed and I'm hoping this means that there will be less collective grief in 2022 as our hospitals will be in a much better position to accept and heal patients. I'm also hopeful that things continue to get better and that it will be a lot safer for people to go on with their lives.