Rona Dougall: Worryingly, my husband seems to have acquired a collection of axes

Should I risk possible arrest by crossing the border to England to deliver a three-week-old festering sausage to my aunt in Alnwick?

Now that’s a dilemma I could never possibly have imagined I would be grappling with this time last year. Written down in black and white it brings home how weird our lives have become.

By the way, the disreputable sausage is part of a Christmas hamper, in case you’re wondering. I don’t just go around delivering sausages… oh, never mind.

The point of today’s column was to talk about my heroes of the year. But I’m struggling. There are loads of them. One silver lining of our annus horribilis has been the way so many have gone above and beyond the call of duty.

Our NHS staff is an obvious pick. I’ve seen at firsthand the effort and hours they’ve put in. My brother, a doctor in Tayside, even got a group of friends to help build a Covid testing centre. On his weekend off. Respect, Hamish. Remember though, as a journalist, I’m a key worker too.

But putting aside sibling rivalry, I’d like to raise a glass to some of the less obvious stalwarts of 2020.

The true introverts of this world for instance, who have been living their best lives for the past nine months. They are an inspiration to me, quietly going about their business, oblivious to the lack of parties, get-togethers and social interactions. In fact, they’ve been blooming loving it.

“I’ve been socially isolating for the last 10 years”, one proudly anti-social friend told me gleefully.

Another group I have huge admiration for are “Those Who Spent Their Time In Lockdown Wisely”. I drank red wine and watched Netflix. My friend Geoff wrote a book.

So hats off to everyone out there who baked bread, raised money for charity, cleaned out their kitchen cupboards and persevered with Joe Wicks’ daily workouts.

My husband spent his time obsessively chopping wood at the bottom of the garden. He developed quite a collection of axes and chainsaws over the weeks. The Amazon delivery guy was becoming suspicious, and was no doubt one order for a chest freezer away from alerting the police.

I’d also like to pay tribute to all the brilliant guests we had on Scotland Tonight this year who stayed sober until 10.40pm and struggled with dodgy internet connections to appear on the programme.

It certainly adds a frisson of excitement to the already quite tense business of live television. Will the picture freeze, will Gail Porter’s cat walk in front of the screen again or will Janey Godley’s sausage dog Honey decide to join the party?

Possibly my stand-out guest of 2020 though has been the kindness tsar David Hamilton who came on to talk about the importance of looking after one another. What a job title. And what a message. This year, more than any other, kindness has been crucial.

Rona Dougall presents Scotland Tonight on STV