My Birthday & 13th Blogiversary: Wow, They Sure Moved the Goalposts

Here we are, my 13th blog anniversary (blogiversary) post, and it’s all a bit of a weird one.

Not necessarily bad weird – it’s good in some parts too – but to think back 13 years ago when I first ventured into blogging, it seems like some totally different entity that has NOTHING to do with what it’s all about today. If you’ve read blogs for years you’ll probably know what I mean, if you yourself blog you will surely know what I mean. I’m not going to have a whinge about it, I’ve done that plenty in the past! Today is about good stuff ♥

So I don’t really have a specific “topic” for this year’s blogiversary post. No listicle, no story as such, just a few random, positive things I’ve been thinking about today (which is actually the day before, Monday 22nd – I don’t work on my birthday and never have: yes today is my birthday too!) – and I’ll share them here. Just a few interesting observations and bits n pieces.

[Reading time: 4 mins]

I’m trying to get a little “looser” with my blog writing. It may not be for everyone. I’m leaning towards stuff that’s a bit more on the chatty side, if you like. If you were still here hoping for regular outfit posts, you’ve probably realised by now that that ain’t happening anymore (not none, my last post was an outfit post!) – outfits are just not regular anymore. Maybe I’ve over-curated/over-proofread posts in the past and that’s why I’d like my writing to get a little looser? Hey ho, let’s see what happens when you throw out the rule book. The blogosphere moved the goalposts BIG time, so guess what? I’m kicking the ball with a Jude Bellingham-style scissor kick and it’s gone in where the goalkeeper could NOT get to it (WAY to big up my own blogging skills there, and no, I don’t know what I’m talking about, either.) I think my brain is part perimenopausal brain mush, part frazzled from too much physical labour today (see first paragraph, below).

But anyway, it’s my birthday! I can do what I like when I’m the Birthday Girl! (Them’s the rules – in my family, at least…)

My bastard darling health

Sooo… life has been a bit up and down lately but the status quo is “things are okay, sort of”. The chronic pain from my sciatica is no longer chronic thank goodness – it’s getting a little bit better day by day. Physiotherapy has done wonders. But this weekend Keith and I worked on the garden and sorting out the garden shed and oh my GOD our bodies cannot take the physical stuff like they did 20 years ago. We went to bed after the first day of hard physical work and we were SHATTERED, our bodies broken. We’re laying a whole new patio area instead of getting someone in to do it because we don’t have a spare £5,500 lying around (as per the quote we had). So hard labour and broken backs (yeah, I know I have to be careful…) are how we’re going to be spending our weekends for the rest of the summer. We’ve realised we’re going to have to restrict the graft to just an afternoon or a morning per day otherwise we’re going to drop dead with exhaustion (and/or I may undo all the good work my physio has done, eep).

Shit hot birthday plans

The British summer has been a disaster so far – the first hot days only really shuffled in this week, but it’s the law that the weather is good on my birthday and the forecast says it will be 22°C (72°F) with sunny intervals today: let’s hope I’m not regretting writing that one day in advance! A pub lunch with Keith is planned (he has the day off work – he is not allowed to work on my birthday either and at the beginning of the year I make sure he books 23rd July as leave straight away): we’re going to a local place that has a lovely pub garden (literally) down by the River Otter. I might even go paddling. I’m 52 today, but as I don’t like my age being an odd number I’ve “been” 52 since the beginning of the year so I’m not actually changing my age today. Welcome to my logic 😉

The British weather (let’s turn this frown upside down…?)

But talking of the weather, this year has been absolutely dreadful all year so far. It’s been thoroughly depressing and Brits all over the country are thoroughly fed up with how much rain we’ve had. Let’s look at this positively – we need to will it to get better, yes? And if you’re in a hot country somewhere with too MUCH sun and/or heat, please send some our way. Thank you so much in advance, thank you thank you.

Writing me tits off

A good thing for me: I’ve been threatening to do this for a while now, which is to write a book, as in a novel. I’ve been toying with the idea for a while and in a flash of inspiration a few weeks back, I came up with (what I think is, anyway) an absolutely brilliant idea for a story. Imagine my Substack stories or the sort of personal stories I’ve shared on the blog, make them longer and there you have it. There may or not be a heavy dose of “me” in the main character (well they do say Write about what you know)… I’ve written about six chapters in less than a week and I’m loving the process. I’ll keep you posted.

A few great quotes I read, plus: Elizabeth Taylor

These came to my attention this week and I wanted to share them with you. Let’s hope they’re real because who knows what’s real and what’s AI these days, amirite?! (AI is very clever and jaw-droppingly impressive, but equally as scary…!)

Maybe the journey isn’t so much about becoming anything. Maybe it’s about un-becoming everything that isn’t really you, so you can be who you were meant to be in the first place. ― Paul Coelho

Home is not where you were born; home is where all your attempts to escape cease. ― Naguib Mahfouz

We often complain about the repetitiveness of our days. Day in, day out, the same. Morning alarm, breakfast, housework, work, looking after everyone else, dinner, baths, bed, wake up, repeat. But do we ever stop to think how much peace is in consistency? How lucky we are if everyday is the same? No big disasters or nasty surprises? How there is so much value in enjoying home life? To get up and do the same tasks day and night is actually a blessing. Laying your head on a pillow at night and thinking of what to cook for dinner the next day is a level of restfulness some people will never experience in their whole lifetime. This world can be cruel and unnecessary; so if you have the peace of a ‘boring’ home life, you really have won the lottery of life. – @deepbreathssmallsteps

I just liked these A LOT, and unlike a lot of quotes I read these days I’ve not seen them before. That third one really hit home with me this week… I needed it.

And then there’s this piece of brilliance…

At the time of writing (Monday 22nd, after another day’s assault on the garden and the shed), I’m a very tired 6. Hopefully the beginning of my birthday will start with a 5 and then move onto a 3, ending with an 8. (I might be too tired for 4, lol.) That’ll be a good birthday, I reckon.

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So I’ll bid you farewell, until next time. Here’s to another(?!) 13 years…!