Until recently I was looking after my mum, so I wasn’t able to celebrate much, as it would have been too disruptive for her. We’d just get some Brussel sprouts and mince pies in, but not much other than that. I haven’t really gotten into a new routine since then.

What adjustments will you need to make this year due to the coronavirus restrictions? And how do you feel about these changes?

To be honest, because I’m not planning on doing anything special for Christmas this year, it hasn’t had much of an impact on me.

I’ll make a couple of phone calls to family members, but I think that will be the extent of it. I struggle quite a bit with online meetings. I find it much harder to read any kind of body language online than in person. It’s also the technical side of things – I try and get into meetings, but something goes wrong, and I’m not in the meeting!

I also have synaesthesia (a neurological condition in which information meant to stimulate one of your senses stimulates several of your senses). This makes looking at flat screens difficult. One of the problems I have is turning patterns into coloured light. For instance, when I’m looking at a text box on a screen, my brain interprets the box as multi-coloured light, so it makes things difficult to read. The flicker of the screen is a pattern in itself, which also doesn’t help. For this reason, socialising online is even more difficult.

How do you feel about giving and receiving presents?

I used to hate present giving a lot more than I do now. I’ve gotten better at judging what someone would like as a present. It took me a long time to learn that.

I personally hate receiving presents, especially if I have to open them in front of people. For example, my ex-partner bought me a shirt one year. I opened it and did my best to respond - ‘oh, thank you!’. She was a bit upset, as she thought I didn’t like the shirt. But what I didn’t like was opening the present and being under pressure to have an immediate reaction, even though I don’t have a reaction that quickly. It takes time. I liked the shirt, but I unintentionally gave her the impression I didn’t. She was surprised when I kept wearing it.

In terms of receiving presents, I’m quite happy with surprises. It’s opening presents in front of other people that I have the problem with.