Born on 1 January 2020

Back in 2020, life took a bit of a funny turn, though we didn't half make the best of it. If you’d walked down any high street in April, it was ghostly quiet, yet the air felt cleaner than it had in decades. We spent that scorching spring stuck in our gardens, nursing lukewarm cans of BrewDog and obsessing over *Tiger King* or that *Normal People* show that had everyone talking about silver chains.

Do you remember the "Clap for Carers"? We’d all stand on our doorsteps at eight on a Thursday, banging saucepans like lunatics; it was the only time we saw the neighbours. We lived on banana bread and sourdough starters, and if you weren't doing a Joe Wicks workout in the morning, you were definitely losing your mind over a pub quiz on Zoom.

There was no cinema—honestly, *No Time to Die* felt like it was delayed for a century—so we just huddled around the radio listening to Dua Lipa’s *Levitating* while the kids went mad for their Nintendo Switches. It was the year of Captain Tom walking his laps and everyone being terrified of running out of Andrex. It was a strange, sideways sort of time, but we’ve never been closer, really.