After a quiet family Christmas at home with fun, games and being dressed as a Disney Princess for the majority of it after my daughter was kindly bought by Father Christmas some lovely dressing up outfits with matching accessories (I will say that trying to fit a Cinderella Tiara on an adult males head was a challenge). After a wonderful time spent and now that 2021 has started and with a new business year commencing, instead of immediate thoughts returning to work and “the office” it is now to the newly confirmed National Lockdown 3.0 and the news that home schooling is to take over and myself and my wife are to become “Mr and Mrs Teacher” for my 5 year old daughter who only started school September 2020.
With my daughters new classroom being set next to the Headmasters office and my constant peeking out from my corner of the house and seeing my wife and daughter working their way through the phonics sounds and letters is so heart warming and one additional positive that can be taken from Boris’s “work from home” again. However the lessons planned by my daughters amazing school is worth a look for any adult not up to speed with modern day education methods as they are an absolute eye opener, I ask anyone, what is your favourite diagraph? Answers to be inputted below and my daughter will grade the replies!
Only Day 4 of the home schooling and we have learnt a lot and already has shown how homelife can fit very nicely into the finance world of the Headmaster. 2020 was a very important year for me and us a firm with many hurdles to overcome and challenges to navigate but I think it is very clear to me and the fantastic team at Affinity (both the mortgage/protection team, and the specialist finance team) that we have ended 2020 with an enhanced knowledge of the tricky finance/property world of the pandemic and how to place that case which may not have seemed as complicated 12 months ago but after COVID struck and Lockdown 1.0 hit, a 70% Commercial Term Debt case was a particularly difficult one!
The big thing that I have personally taken out of 2020 is how to be a proper father again, the long hours and business trips had taken me away from thing that matters, the one who dresses me up in her favourite ball gown (and that is not my wife) but my amazing daughter. COVID although has made our home a very unwell place to be at times after my wife contracted the virus in April 2020 but with paramedic assistance, oxygen etc was nursed back to health and in those 14 days I became mother/father/broker/carer and princess and we as a family have not looked back…although a difficult 14 days to say the least I can safely say that we as a 3 are a better family unit for it, I am Daddy and Husband again and have a new outlook on business and family…and with a clear head and happy heart flowing in my work, business has grown, specialist cases placed, my contact list enhancing by the day and the love and support of my colleagues stronger than ever. So lets see what 2021 has to bring!
My wife is constantly reminding me of the small holding in the countryside that I promised her within our wedding vowels so regardless of where we end up with the new lockdown and the new vaccine etc, I have a promise to keep and a goat that will be in need of purchasing.
Ben
