I guess it follows that having written ‘Ten hopes for the Tens’ I should double the effort for this new decade.

As 2020 was such a tumultuous year, it also follows that I should wish to double my hopes for the remaining years of the decade – as we already have some serious catching up to do.

So, in the next decade I hope that …

1. As our children navigate their early adult life, we continue to support them in whatever ways we can
2. We are grandparents by 2030 (but definitely no pressure G&C)
3. I have helped find a cure for genetic deafness
4. I make the most of my regenerated hearing abilities
5. I make my dear departed parents proud
6. I finally grow up
7. We have not retired
8. We are still selling stuff online
9. I provide my wife with the security and peace of mind she deserves
10. I complete my ‘grand designs’ (to my wife’s satisfaction)
11. I develop healthier interests
12. I develop new skills
13. We spend extended time in the sun
14. We do more to pay it back and forward
15. We’ve seen the last of Donald Trump and his like – America’s Worst President
16. We see more of Kamala Harris and her like – Vice President Harris
17. Technology starts helping society again rather than increasingly undermining it – Tech causes more problems than it solves
18. We truly ‘build back better’ following on from the pandemic – Build Back Better
19. We truly start listening to ‘the science’ – Climate Change Action
20. We make the world a better place for our children and their children – Making the World a better place

So, on the twenty first minute of the twenty first hour of the twenty first day of the twenty first year of the twenty first century I have relaunched my personal blog.

(OK, I’ll admit that with the last two ‘twenty ones’ I cheated using the publish tool on WordPress, as I was only reminded of the significance of the date and time after the event. I do have the receipt to prove I bought the new domain – beyond 2020visions.blog – and a new WordPress subscription on the 21st of January 2021 though 🙂 )

Looking back over my last 10 years of posts is also a reminder of the ‘significant date number’ ones I’ve done in the past on dates we will never experience again in our lifetimes like 11.11.11 , 10.11.12 and 12.12.12 …

The title of my original blog, that I started in 2009, was ‘2020 Visions – Imagining the World my children will inherit‘ and it was a platform for personal musings on family, work and personal interests.

I started writing it with good intentions but ran out of steam half way through the decade. In more recent years I have experimented with other writing platforms like Medium but found them far too distracting as they employ all the addictive tricks of the main ‘social media’ platforms to keep you unhealthily hooked.

On balance though I do like the discipline of putting thoughts in writing from time to time. It encourages you to really ‘think’ about things and also to both ‘review’ and ‘plan’.

In terms of reviewing the last decade there was one particular post I wrote in 2009 that has provided a benchmark for my thinking back then and also one mechanism by which to measure the passing of time.