I have draft posts coming out of my ears on here! So today I have gone down to Outside the Box cafe in Ilkley for an event called ‘Write-in’. It is run by Andrea, a lovely writer I met when I attended a goals workshop at Clarke Foley Centre back in February. Read more about my time in Ilkley here.

I’m writing this today from a table dedicated to a bunch of us just purely here for writing! It makes a nice change from my sofa at midnight. No distractions, no noise, just the sound of us all typing away. Just what I need to get my head around some of these draft posts I have lingering in the corners of my blog.

If you know me at all, you probably know what me and my family get up to. I do share a lot of my life adventures through social media privately to my close friends and family. If you fall into that category you’ll probably see what I get up to. For those of you with eagle eyes, you may notice that my blog posts often get published out of order; more often than I’d like them to! This is because I will go somewhere, write about it at the time but then not have time to finish the post or just lose interest and go off on a tangent with something else. My brain gets completely distracted and I lose focus very easily.

When I do this, my drafts just pile up. Today I have 47 unfinished posts. This doesn’t include my two unfinished novels, one started in 2010 and not edited since. My endless amounts of journals I’ve started and not filled or many many projects I take in and never follow through with.

Would it shock you to know that some of my posts I started writing before the COVID-19 pandemic? In fact, my oldest draft post was written in 2018 and never finished!

Isn’t it crazy how fast time runs away with us all. As my toddler gets older I hope to get some of my free time back but I am sure I will lose time in other ways too. I have already noticed a significant difference between her age now and her as an infant. This is especially the case for my blog as you may have noticed this year with the quantity of posts increasing.

I really enjoy writing, so the moment it feels like a chore over a hobby I disappear for a while. Throughout my career I have been in charge of writing the newsletters for the companies I have worked for, the weekly briefings, the internal communications… All sorts. I am lucky to have been one of the few who gets to work in the field they thrive in and i’m proud of that.

But, I like to write for me and write what I want to write. An interesting fact about me – I once started a Creative Writing degree at the University of East London. I dropped out the first week because I didn’t like being told what to read and write. Perhaps I should have done a little more research into the degree first! Haha. I ended up studying something else so it wasn’t a total waste of time but it taught me that I won’t settle for something i’m not happy with.

I want to make sure I have something to read back on throughout my life. This blog is like a never ending diary for me featuring mostly highlights with the occasional lifestyle rant like this one. Recently I’ve helped my sister plan her backpacking trip around Thailand. It had me looking back at my previous post that I wrote over a decade ago. I have found my blog really useful for revisiting where I’ve been and it’s been a way of unlocking memories that I had forgotten. The fact that I took the time to write this back then has been such a benefit for me now and I don’t doubt i’ll be grateful in the future if I continue.

I’ve been revisiting RSPB reserves recently too and it is amazing how much you forget about in only a few years. Reading back on our last visit has brought comfort and a friendly reminder of where we have already been and what is worth revisiting.

I have no doubt that reading our family holiday diaries written in Paris and beyond will be really enjoyable in the future, especially to read with my daughter. This is why I write my story. This is exactly why my blog exists. It’s not here for anyone in particular to read but I am also happy for everyone to read.

Over the next few months I hope to work on some of the posts that I’ve been writing for a while or have put off finishing. You may see blog posts about things I went to months ago as I play catch up.

The important thing is that I’m not letting my memories fade and I am enjoying myself in the process. I have always had a problem with my memory. I can remember weird things that have stuck with me that nobody else seems to remember but major events like holidays that took place only recently have big gaps in. I even forget whole conversations and no matter how much I try to remember being in that moment; it’s like it never happened. Blogging, taking photographs and capturing the moment is my way of tackling this.

So as I sit here and write this, I know very few will be listening but if you have made it this far , please know I appreciate you. I am currently facing new challenges as I come to terms with the way my brain works and I’m sure over the coming months i’ll have more answers. For now , i’ll keep doing what i’m doing and see where it takes me. Thanks for reading my story.