- Hello lovely people and welcome to 2022.
She says a couple of weeks into 2022.
Oh, well it's fine.
Here's my first video
of the new year
and of course I thought it was very important
that we start with the annual goals and wishes video.
We didn't actually do one last year
as the first video back of the year
because instead, my first video was,
surprise, we're having a baby which was a pretty good one.
Come on, we got pregnant.
Hit it.
Surprise, a baby.
Not doing that again this year,
although who knows?
Baby, number two might do a surprise.
So might keep you on your toes there.
Subscribe, click the notification bell.
You know, also for good video content,
not just because I might spring another baby
on you at any point but no,
what we're going to be doing
in this video is talking through my kind of goals, wishes,
things I would like to happen in this year.
I don't tend to set resolutions just
because I think a resolution is like quite a hard
and (indistinct) thing
and not just something that you, I dunno,
something that you break and it involves like willpower
and my personal philosophy is
that you should work with yourself and your body, your mind,
rather than trying to force it and mold it
into doing things that you don't necessarily want to do.
So instead, I've gone with some positives,
things that I like and would like
to happen and hope to work towards.
Number one, leave the country.
Yeah, yeah, I'm pretty sure this is probably high up there
on a number of people's lists, hmm.
As a vulnerable individual,
COVID has meant my world has got quite a bit smaller
and every time I leave the house,
it's kind of a big deal for me actually
and then every time I leave the city in which I live,
it's a really, really big deal.
I've got to say, it's starting to feel quite small.
I was kind of developing a little bit of,
a little bit of agoraphobia last year
when the pandemic was quite intense in 20,
wait, last year was 2021,
I don't even know the years anymore.
Oh my God.
Anyway.
And it's still not great in
that I am not brilliant when I'm not with Claudia.
She is the sort of key to my agoraphobia, we would say.
So I'm fine in the house by myself.
I'm never by myself, that's a terrible explanation
but I'm fine in the house.
I'm okay if she's not in the house.
When it comes to leaving the house,
unless it's with Claudia,
not great, unless, caveat,
I'm holding onto Rupert's buggy.
That's, yeah, that's my thing.
So I can walk around the block pushing Rupert
in his buggy and we are kind of okay.
As long as nobody attempts to stop me and talk
to me and I don't have to like go
into a place or out of the route
that it was expected in my mind.
Wow, I thought this was getting better, hang on.
And then when we're in a crowded place
or somewhere that I'm like,
I don't know if I'm super safe here.
I kind of need to be hanging on to his, hang on to,
pushing, I'm pushing with agency his buggy
in order to feel okay
and then she needs to be there as well.
Yeah, so I could really do with this pandemic being over
so that I don't need to feel the fear anymore.
Did get better though with having a vaccine,
has improved that fear for me
'cause now I actually do leave the house.
So that's good
but the actual goal was to leave the country.
Normally in other years, we love to travel.
We especially love to go
and visit Claudia's family in Malaysia.
Our plan was after we got married
that we'd go to visit Malaysia every two years,
especially once we had children,
because we would always want them
to be connected to that part
of their heritage and now we have Rupert
and he is an actual little person,
that's obviously really important.
It is a very long flight.
Also Malaysia, aren't letting people
from England into the country at the moment.
Yeah, England's doing so well,
we're really managing it guys, well done.
So, positives, positive spin.
So we would like to start him off,
do a little trial run, take Rupert abroad somewhere nice,
somewhere sunny, get a little bit
of that winter sun
which is also really good for Claudia's SAD.
So really, you know,
helping everyone's mental state.
Help Rupert experience planes for the first time.
I went on a plane for the first time
when I was six months old and he is now seven months old so.
By possibly going to Tenerife, maybe, (indistinct)
'cause we booked a holiday to Tenerife for my birthday,
which is the end of January, January 25th,
one month after Christmas day.
Those of you who don't have it marked on your calendars.
Yeah, booked that last year
when I paralyzed myself for a few weeks and was like, whoa,
Claudia really needs a break,
poor girl and then, you know, Omicron.
So we'll see whether we're actually allowed
to leave the country
but if not, hopefully soon which is why it's a goal.
Number two, write a book.
Goodness.
Those of you who may have watched this
in previous years are like, hmm, sounds familiar.
Yes, I know it does, I know.
Maybe this year slightly edging further forwards
in this plan than previous years wink, wink,
because I'm actually in talks
about this with a publisher even, hmm.
I just need to keep revising it
until they like it enough and hopefully I will
have more information on it to share with you soon
but it will be a book for children
because I've been really inspired
by reading books to Rupert,
it's one of my favorite things to do.
One of my favorite bonding moments with him.
He is obsessed with books, my God.
Whoa, I think his first words actually going to be book,
he's really working on being able
to say the word book as well.
He's very cute and he wakes me every morning and attempts
to launch himself towards his stack
of books to make me read one to him.
So, books, his favorite thing.
So I'm going to write him a series
of books and maybe they'll get published
or maybe I will just have a thing
to give Rupert and it will
be like a little family book series,
also yay and you should, please buy it.
Doesn't even exist yet but I hope you like it.
Speaking of Rupert,
I really wanted to include him in this video
but then I also, do I have any expectations
for him I realized
because I don't want to put any expectations on him.
I should just think like,
what would my expectations be for Rupert?
Do I have a goal for like, oh,
I want him to be falling by the stage.
I want him to be walking by then and I'm like, well,
not really, no, because you know,
he'll just do things when he does things really,
his own pace so.
I do have goals for my own parenting.
So one of my goals is that I in the summer was going
with Claud and Rupert for their morning walk every day
and I really was benefiting from doing that I think,
it was really, really lovely to spend that time with them.
It was a great way to start my day.
He does nap a lot at that time.
It's where he has his morning nap
but just to spend the first part of that before he nap,
when he just kind of looking around,
looking at the trees,
just experiencing the world and smiling up at you,
to have that time with him, that was beautiful,
so I'd like to be doing that again with him
but in winter it's a pretty,
a little bit harder for me because it's quite cold
and if it's wet, that can be quite painful.
So my goal is that on everyday
that it's not raining and really adverse weather
that I know is gonna make me feel very ill
and kind of deplete my spoons that I get to,
I will go out with him.
Oh, I have another parenting goal
which is that I really want to take Rupert to ballet class
but I haven't had the energy.
it's always on a Monday and I'm always really tired
on a Monday and they like drop in sessions.
Generally in the morning on Monday I'm like,
oh, I'm not gonna be able to make it.
So what I need to do is do less on a Sunday
so that I am on a Monday morning ready
to go off to ballet with my boy.
I don't know if the moms do ballet.
Maybe it's just the babies.
I hate how things are called moms and babies.
Also I hate that as well
because then everyone's gonna ask me like,
what was your delivery like?
I'll be like, oh.
Oh, although, very fun fact,
someone today who we actually know
did spend a good five minutes,
we haven't seen him since Rupert was little,
staring at Rupert's, staring at the two of us
and then went, whose egg did you use again?
And we were like, flattered.
So yeah, apparently Rupert looks like a blend
of the two of us in such a confusing way
that people can't tell and number four,
while we're on the subject of babies and also travel,
I would like to fly to Valencia,
to visit Clara and Evelina and see their baby
when it comes in May and it's gonna
be so cute and Rupert is gonna have a little Spanish,
Swedish cousin, it'll be adorable.
I miss Cara very much
and it's very sad having a best friend in another country,
especially in COVID times
because again, you cannot see them much,
but thank goodness for the wonders of the internet.
Number five, I would like to work with Diet Coke.
Is this a goal for this year?
Is this a goal for my life?
Hmm, I, you know, I think Diet Coke already sponsor my life.
They're not aware of it yet but they do.
That's a handy prop, add it in.
I have a thing called
postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome or POTS
which basically means
that the veins in my body don't constrict properly.
There's a longer explanation.
I have a whole video about it,
you can click here in this card.
Basically, how your body should work is
that when you stand up,
veins and arteries in your legs constrict
and blood flow goes back up into your body,
into the top part of your body, right?
It's all moving around.
It's all pumping.
The heart's going.
It's all good, yeah.
Here we are.
However, when you have POTS,
what happens is you stand up and there's veins down there,
they can't be assed, they're not doing anything
All that blood just pooling.
It's just in your feet.
Brilliant.
Turning purple is great and then you faint
because the bloods not come all the way back up
to your head yet,
you stand up and you go,
but you know what is good?
Diet Coke.
It's a vasoconstrictor.
So it makes those little veins constrict.
Excellent, really works.
You know what else Diet Coke is good for?
Stopping you from failing nausea.
I have tried so many different antiemetic.
Oh my God, I've been prescribed them all.
That one that dissolves
under your tongue and makes you feel
like a rat crawled in there and died.
Yeah, I've tried it, doesn't work.
Still feel sick because a rat crawled
into my mouth and died.
The pastille one that's like,
it's supposed to be chewy and nice.
No, it didn't work.
It's just like, but you know what does work?
Diet Coke.
You know what also tastes quite nice?
Diet Coke.
You know what you can find everywhere
when you're the person who can't drink alcohol or sugar?
Diet Coke.
I could go on.
I'm a brilliant spokeswoman for Diet Coke.
So I think we're on six, but I've lost track.
So one of my goals for 2021, a silent goal
because I didn't tell anyone was to get
to 900,000 subscribers and it happened in 2022
but it was the fourth of January.
So we'll just shuffle it.
It is before Chinese New Year, that counts.
So that means that this year we should just set a new goal.
So I like to do a subscribers goal
in these videos just because the first one went so funny.
I set a goal to reach 20,000 subscribers,
I think and I reached 200,000.
That was just hilarious to me.
So, I don't know.
It feels weird to say it, right?
It feels silly to say it.
It feels, I mean, do we do it?
Do we say it?
Maybe, maybe, maybe 2022 is the year of a million.
I don't know, maybe.
I mean, we'll see.
So my plan for the channel going forwards is
that I'm gonna be making two videos a week from here on out.
They're gonna be coming out
on Tuesdays and Fridays to the best
of my ability and that, you know, illness, injury,
baby related drama, I fall over and smack my head,
that comes under injury.
Oh, personal life issues.
That's a thing but otherwise,
two videos a week, that's the idea.
I'm also gonna be doing shorts probably somewhere
in the region of like two
or three a week kind of they're scattered here and there.
One thing that I'm doing with shorts is Queer History 101's
which I was doing over on my TikTok
but I'm going to bring all of that over here
onto my YouTube platform
and then continuing this series here on shorts
on YouTube and in terms of video content
in the longer form videos,
you're gonna be getting pretty much the same kind
of variety stuff as you have before,
It's gonna be longer versions of the Queer History stuff.
There's also gonna be some fashion content,
a little bit of vintage fashion,
but more vintage fashion would be in the shorts
but I find the longer form vintage fashion stuff,
people aren't quite as interested in seeing
from me and it was also quite exhausting for me to make,
I find it much less exhausting
to make shorter things because you know,
I'm getting dressed anyway.
I might as well make a little film thing
as I get dressed so.
Also as always you can expect disability content.
We'll be making videos about disability history.
My Historical Profiles series will still be here.
If there's anybody you would like me to profile,
please let me know in the comments down below,
it's not just disabled icons that we look
at in the Historical Profile series.
We of course look at LGBT icons and
of course the big new thing content wise
that appear during the last half year
and I'm gonna talk about more
this year is parenting and how that intersects
with disability and LGBTQ plus identities
and well, my (indistinct), my life.
I actually recently had an idea
that every month I'm gonna (indistinct) a post
on the community tab where you can write
in and let me know any suggestions
that you have for upcoming videos and things
that you would like to see and that way you can all upvote
each other's posts and whichever sort of rises to the top,
it's gonna be easiest for me to get my attention
rather than if people leave it in the comments
because sometimes they just get lost
and if they're really, really amazing ideas
but I just can't see it
because it's got drowned out
by lots and lots of other comments.
Think that's gonna be the best way.
Posted the first one already.
So head over to community tab now
if you've got an idea and I'm very,
very intrigued to read, I'm very excited.
Thank you so much for watching.
I'm really, really happy to be going
into 2022 with you and thank you so much to the members
of The Kellgren Fozard Club for supporting the channel,
for being here, for always being amazing human beings
and I will see you in my next video
which will be out this Friday.
(lips smacking)
Bye guys.