December 2020 summary: Christmas content, production, relaxation and celebration

December 2020 has been filled with Christmas content, Christmas production, Christmas relaxation an Christmas celebrations.

Disability Horizons

In December 2020, I’ve been working on a couple of festive articles, news content, plus a disability living aids article set to be published in January.

All my Disability Horizons content is now available to view in one place on the Emma Purcell Author’s page. This link can also be accessed on the “Disability Horizons” button on the menu page on the left of this site.

My featured content, product articles and sponsored posts for Disability Horizons can be viewed in my Journo Portfolio.

To read my latest news stories, interviews and featured articles on a regular basis, as well as browse other content from the rest of the amazing DH team, subscribe to the Disability Horizons newsletter.

Drama

If you’ve been reading my previous blog summaries the past few months, you’ll know my drama classes at the West End Centre have been moved online due to Covid restrictions.

For our Christmas production, we’ve recorded a short performance on Zoom inspired by the BBC show Staged. We took a couple of scenes from last year’s production and filmed ourselves trying to rehearse it while having original scenes in between of the actors making conversations and banter.

We recorded several takes over five weeks and the video is available to watch here –

Christmas celebrations

Last Monday, the DH team got together on Zoom for a virtual Christmas party. They sent us all a party box with snacks, drinks and Christmas goodies, which was very nice of them. We played some games and had a good old chit-chat for a couple of hours, which was great fun.

On Christmas Day itself, I just had Mum and Dad with me. We opened presents, had dinner, played Scrabble and watched TV and movies. Simple and quiet as we like it.

Books

At the end of November, I began reading Love Your Life by Sophie Kinsella. Overall, this book had the great mix of emotion, drama and humour the Sophie Kinsella brings to her books. The ending was happy yet somewhat predictable.

I then went onto read the latest book by J.K Rowling called The Ickabog. This is a fairy-tale story about a kingdom that believes people are being killed by a mythical monster known as an Ickabog. However, the truth can only be discovered by two brave children.

This book has the hint of adventure and emotion similar to the Harry Potter stories. Plus, I love the fact Stephen Fry is narrating the audiobook. Although it is a children’s book, I think anyone of any age can still read this.

I began reading another book by J.K Rowling called The Casual Vacancy. This was the first book she published since finishing the Harry Potter series and the first book written for adults.

Sadly, there are no magical creatures or mythical monsters in this story. Just a town full of muggles in south-west England.

It basically starts with the death of a parish councillor called Barry who dies of an aneurysm. Then we get introduced to the rest of the community who knew Barry. It’s a rather slow story at the moment, but I’m guessing there is something more to his death than we know.

Unfortunately, I only managed to read half of the Casual Vacancy because it became less interesting and rather depressing that I gave in. I then tried a bit of classic literature by reading Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte but again I struggled to enjoy it and found it difficult to understand which character was telling the story.

Instead I’ve now begun reading the next novel by Ruth Jones called Us Three, which follows three young friends who go on holiday together before setting off on new pathways into higher education and adulthood. The fact that Ruth Jones is narrating this audiobook makes me picture Nessa in some of the characters.

TV & films

Well, at the beginning of December 2020, I finished watching I’m a Celebrity and what a series it was. Even though I didn’t know much about Giovanna, I’m glad she was crowned Queen of the Castle.

I also managed to finish series two of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The last few episodes were so dramatic and was left on a very confusing cliff-hanger. I’m now already halfway through series three.

Moreover, I watched the finale of Taskmaster on Channel 4. I’ve never seen this programme before but thoroughly enjoyed it. Out of the contestants, I only knew Johnny Vegas but became very fond of Daisy May Cooper and she was my favourite to win.

Another series finale was the second series of His Dark Materials. Despite having read the trilogy on several occasions, it was still an emotional ending.

As well as all these series finales, I re-watched the complete box set of Gavin & Stacey, which had audio description on every episode, meaning I discovered details I never knew before.

I’ve also binge-watched another one of my favourite sitcoms Outnumbered that follows the love, drama and craziness of Sue and Pete Brockman and their three children Jake, Ben and Karen.

I also watched a few Christmas movies including The Christmas Chronicles 1 & 2, The Holiday, Love Actually and Elf.

Audio Description petition

My campaign for audio description has continued throughout December 2020 and the petition has now gained a total of 2339 signatures, which is incredible!

But I’m eager to reach thousands more. The more signatures we get, the more likely changes could be made within the TV & films industries. Please, please, PLEASE continue to sign & share my petition!

Guest Bloggers Wanted

I’m still eager to collaborate with even more bloggers in 2021. So, if you’re a lifestyle, disability and/or music blogger, send me your blog stories. Plus let me know if you’d like me to feature on your blog as a guest blogger.

I’m flexible with any type of blog posts; life story, disability awareness, music event, musician promotion – basically anything to do with life, disability or music!

In addition, I have a guest blog series called “RFD Question Time with…” where I interview disabled people and/or bloggers. If you’d like to be interviewed in this series, please also contact me.

Donations

Thank you to everyone who has donated to my blog throughout the year. Please continue to donate over the next 36 hours and 20% will go to The John Schofield Trust, a charity that supports young journalists in the industry through a mentoring scheme, and which I’ve been accepted onto in 2021.

Blog post roundup

In case you missed any of my blog posts this month, here is a roundup of them:

1. Music Interview: Amy Mantis & the Space Between
2. RFD Question Time with Amanda Nelson at Amanda Gene
3. Rock For Disability celebrates 3 year anniversary

5 favourite blog posts

 Here are my 5 favourite blog posts I’ve read this month: 

1. How covid and dating have changed me for the better at My Life My Story
2. November 2020 rounup by Ami Ireland at Undercover Superhero
3. How Security Personnel Can Ensure Disabled Customers Feel at Ease | AD at Simply Emma
4. 5 Goals You Shouldn’t Overstress About In Your Twenties at New Lune
5. Blogmas | 12 Days Of Christmas Book Tag at Got Meghan

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