The Year of the Pandemic

Somehow I managed to write about your football debut without even a nod to the six months of lockdown that preceeded it; there have been six more since (under various guises). It's obviously been something very different to how the year should have been but you seem to have managed very well. Chess has been the key focus - you've been on Chessable learning lines almost every day for a year (lifetime pro membership was a present for your performance in the Newham Grand Prix last year)

and Lichess too. StansNetChess (where I still play, which you continuously laugh about), Chess.com (for the most part) and Chesskid (apart from a few games with the little school club I run) have generally fallen by the wayside and you take part in Barnet, J4NCL and Bundesliga tournaments regularly. You beat a GM last week for the first time. There will be more. Indeed, your chess is superlative. Your beat me regularly, got to the Terafinal of the UKCC and the finals of the British Online Chess Championship and you topped your third place in the Newham GP last year by winning it this.

Football has suffered in the last six months. In the first, we went out into the courtyard and to Barnard Park and you improved your kicking and tricks. In the last six months we did less of that but things are opening up again and hopefully you can start training regularly within a couple of weeks. We spent much more time in Caledonian Park than we had ever done (partly because the goals on the football pitches at Barnard Park were made inaccessible) and that gave you the opportunity to see friends and not miss out entirely on that element of socialising that school affords. Recently you have been remotivated to play the piano, generally by the performance element and the addition of singing into the mix. It started with a recital for friends and family online in preparation for your Grade 1 exam (which hasn't happened yet)

but continued with short videos sent to your nan as she recovered from pneumonia and a blood clot. Her 80th approaches and you are learning "Wonderful Tonight" by ear so that you can sing and play it for her. You're growing up. Sometimes, including earlier this evening, I look at you and you look more mature than I am ready for. I still get to sit you on my lap and hug you but I know this won't be allowed for as much longer as I would like. You are kind and thoughtful to younger children and your mum and I were happy and impressed to hear how humble you had been in accepting the NGP congratulations in an online call we weren't party to. You have character, my boy, which is impressive before 10. You are currently reading less than ever. Your life is filled with chess and the chats and work around it and reading seems to have suffered so when you told me yesterday of a book you were enjoying at school, I bought the series in the hope of seeing you engrossed in them soon. The Narnia series aren't doing it for you even though you've tried. We still do karate but the majority of the year has been online and we've not done much more than the lessons, not trained independently for the most part. Monday was our Sensei, Adam's, birthday and we did 39 kata to mark it but were rusty on all but the first two. You are a busy boy and we've done well to keep up with as much as we have. I do feel that self-defence is an important ability you may need in the future. You're different - brilliant - and that's not always appreciated. We hope to get you into a school where you fit in well and you have been doing 11+ tests in preparation for the best part of a year. Fingers crossed, my wonderful son.