I was pretty excited about the potential for 2020. It seemed like a good number for a year to have. 2020. I have a new job in an area I am passionate about and where I thought I could make a difference. And things were coming together at my company which were very positive. There was great energy in moving the company forward.

I remember back in the year 2000 wondering what 2020 would hold? I couldn’t imagine where I would be or what I would be doing at age (cough) 47. I’m pretty sure I would not have imagined living in Singapore during a world-wide pandemic where we had to stay home to work while supervising my 11-year-old son grade 5 math’s! I didn’t enjoy grade 5 math’s the first time around and I can tell you I’m definatley not enjoying it the second time!

In talking to my network this has created lots of uncertainty and people are scared and have many important questions like:

• Will I lose my job?
• Why is there no chocolate in the fridge?
• Where is my next roll of toilet paper coming from?
• Will my children survive home learning? And what are Singapore prisons like?
• Why is there no chocolate in the fridge?
• Is a zombie apocalypse coming?
• Should I do more online fashion shopping or save money for food for my family?
• Why is there no chocolate in the fridge?
• Is there a time in the future when I’ll have to do my hair again?

ALL the important questions…..

But seriously, I feel like the world is never going to be predictable or certain again but maybe it never was? Just in my working life there have been numerous times of world instability including the Global Financial Crisis, 9/11, the oil crisis in 2014 and the current pandemic and oil price war. While I truly believe most of us will come through the current situation ok, it can be very unsettling.

One of the great things to come out of the current situation include getting back to the simple things in life, like:

• Making my own pasta. Yes this recently involved the procurement of a relatively expensive pasta machine that connects to our beautiful Kitchen maid mixmaster thingy. Arran also bought a tortilla press. Because everyone needs fresh tortillas in lock down. Don’t they?
• Playing board games. Actually I hate board games. Well games of any sort. I only like Pub trivia because well there are other people and beer and wine. I don’t care about the competition. During one of the last days before lockdown in Singapore we bought the Fortnight version of Monopoly. Don’t even! It's fun playing with the boys though.
• Reading real books and staying off social media. Can you read my post about that here.
• Going for walks to the dog park. There are dogs and people and grass and nature and stuff
• Doing “Wine O’clock” with some fantastic work colleagues and friends. We get on a video webinar and just catch up at the end of the week. It’s great. Really great.

So that’s what I’m starting for a wider group of people. A set of webinars at Wine O’clock (later in the afternoon) where we can share a glass of wine or two and learn some interesting stuff to help you in your career and in your life.

The first one is about session is about job insecurity which is free to attend. We’ll cover dealing with change (and man when was the last time you had to deal with so much change), some things you can do to either halt or delay potentially losing your job, how to plan to lose your job (yep a depressing thought but it’s helpful to have a plan) and what to do if you lose your job. See! You might need some wine to think about all this!

And for our Singapore community we have got you the best deal from Australia’s Petersons Wines for this week’s Wine O’clock. Two discounted wine packs to choose from, delivered straight to your door in readiness for Wine O'clock! Pretty cool hey?

Register to attend and buy wine here.