For the last couple of months I have been partaking in writing a Tuesday Tidbit post. I first came across this via two of my blogging friends Rob from The V Pub and Erika
It was great fun thinking up all sorts of naughtiness and also seeing what the others came up with as well. Ritu and Rich were also on board, and that is how our little Tidbit family was formed.
Anyway, from out of the blue today, Rob has decided that he is closing his blog for good. I am shocked and upset that he has reached this decision, and don’t really feel like writing a Tidbit post for tomorrow.
I am going to put those on hold for now (don’t worry there is always enough smut and innuendo in my other posts anyway) as it won’t be the same without Rob.
Who would have thought it? I have reached a milestone that, just over a year ago I would never have heard of, let alone be celebrating. Yes, I have been blogging now for a whole year!
It’s funny, but I am extremely proud of my little blog. I can understand how authors consider their book their ‘babies,’ as I am of a similar mind about my blog. I gave birth to it, nurtured it, coaxed and cajoled it. I have fed and clothed it, making it look as pretty as I can with limited resources and experience!
I am delighted with the friends I have made because of it, have oohed and ahhed over other people’s babies’ achievements and milestones (even been a little envious if they are more advanced than mine)!!
I am humbled when others praise it, want to visit and interact with it. That puffs me up with parental pleasure and pride.
I have taken on challenges, learned many new skills, stretched myself in ways I could never have dreamed of, and not only that, enjoyed it all immensely!
Thank you to each and every one of you that reads my blog, interacts, comments or shares, please know that you are all very much appreciated. I am sure that had I not had such a warm and friendly welcome to this wonderful community, I would never have lasted this long.
Because of you all, I am still here a year later and intend to be here for as long as you can put up with me!
You may remember that I wrote a post recently about my hideous experience at the Health and Well-Being Appointment that I attended. (If you missed it you can find it here).
I have been overwhelmed at the response I got from my wonderful blogging friends since this post was published. I have had so many messages of support and encouragement that have really touched me deeply.
I just wanted to let you know that you are all brilliant, and I realise that I have many more friends than I realised.
Today is my 6th wedding anniversary to Mr Grump. Although we have only been married a short while, we go way back and actually met for the first time in 1984. This is our story here
We were originally going to wait for a while before getting married, but after a few months, neither of us wanted to wait, bearing in mind how long it took us to get back together again.
As both of us has been married before, we decided that we would go for just a quiet ceremony with mostly family and a few friends. The local Registry Office was closed and in the process of being relocated, so in the interim they were using the Sports and Leisure Centre.
This was ok but had a hell of a walk leading up to it, almost like a helter-skelter, and that put me off, as both Mum and Dad would have a job with it, not to mention me with my high heels!
There was an alternative which was much cheaper, and in the centre of town, which I thought was ideal, so we booked it up and set about organising everything else. The evening was taken care of as we were going to a small pub which had karaoke (Miss Hap loves it). The landlord was laying on a BBQ, and my brother-in-law (Mr Musician) was going to sing for us later on.
The cake was being made by one of my sisters (Mrs Masterchef), and we had got everything else off of the internet (yes, even the dress). My sister-in-law just happens to be a hairdresser so that was sorted as well.
Just before the big day, the dress arrived (luckily). It was a little more elaborate than I had envisaged and had a huge skirt, plus small train at the back. This would have been fine had we opted for the Leisure Centre to marry in, but our ‘venue’ was not quite what I had expected.
When we went to see it, there were beautiful gardens out the back, but the ‘wedding room’ was tiny, and only accommodated about 6 or 8 guests! Bearing in mind, Best Man, witnesses, Miss Hap and us, that was going to be it! Everything else was in place invitations sent out, the lot.
After crying and getting myself in a state, we decided who was going to come with us. Everyone else waited at our house (we were only going to be about an hour all told). My sister-in-law gave me and Miss Hap a lift to the venue, and we met up with the others there!
Our best friend Karen, who was in the army with us was a witness, as was my older sister, and my Dad too.
View from outside the window of Dad signing the registerMy step-mum and a very dear friend peeping through the window at proceedings!
Despite everything, it was a very emotional service and we both cried! It was out in the garden for photos, and back to ours (which had suddenly been decorated with banners and balloons), for a buffet until we headed off to the pub a few hours later!
It might not have been the fanciest of weddings, but it was a brilliant day that we all enjoyed. Sitting on patio chairs in our small back garden, with a load of family dressed in all our finery was so relaxed; we all had a great laugh. Especially when we found out that our lovely Best Man, forgot his cufflinks and improvised with some paper clips!
Then later when some friends came to the pub. The kids on the karaoke, the bangers and burgers on the barbie, and then Mr Musician serenading us with ‘Hotel California’ was brilliant; tucking into a delicious chocolate wedding cake made by Mrs Masterchef completed a fantastic day.
I am really fed up this evening. I was supposed to be going to my friend Carl’s wedding reception this evening which I have really been looking forward to. I met him when I was at Uni and he was kind enough to give me a lift in sometimes (knowing my aversion to driving). He is such a lovely man, always kind and helpful, and I was really looking forward to meeting his new husband too, but I think I have some kind of bug.
I threw up Sunday night but seemed to be ok Monday so I brushed it off. However yesterday morning I was so tired I had real difficulty getting up for work. Even when I got there I felt exhausted (not good when you have a physical job). I got home and flopped out on the settee for a bit.
Luckily Miss Hap was spending the weekend with my older sister, and my mum, by the seaside so she would be having a nice time. I ended up going to bed at 9pm as I struggled to stay awake and gave up in the end (So much for a romantic, child free weekend, nudge, nudge, wink, wink).
I went to sleep as soon as my head touched the pillow. Well, until about 1:30 pm when I lurched awake feeling awful. I ended up throwing up again, felt all hot and clammy but went back to bed and managed to sleep again.
Today though, I forced myself into thinking I was better and would be going tonight. I even sent a message saying I would see them later (some of my other friends from Uni are going as well and I was excited to be meeting up with them too). I wasn’t better though. I have had a burning at the back of my throat and felt rough all day.
I was determined to go to town just to get out the house for a bit. We called in on my younger sister on the way, who told me I looked awful Great. I didn’t think I looked that bad! We didn’t stay that long in town anyway, I felt all hot and clammy and a high temperature confirmed something is going on. So I have now had to cancel going tonight as I do not want to give the wedding guests an unwanted present! Bloody typical!
Keeping positive is something that I am constantly striving to achieve, seeing as I have always tended to look on the negative side of things!
I think as I have got older I have become much more determined, and actually that does help me to focus on the positive, or at least to have a little more self-belief. Workwise, I still have ambition, and want to try to move up another rung on the ladder,and being negative and doubting my ability will not help me get to where I want to be.
Suffering with depression as well, it can very often be difficult to keep positive, as I get times when I feel pretty useless, and rubbish at everything. This drags me down until I turn inwards, and just want to stay in and see nobody (except my husband and daughter). I realise that it is not healthy and am trying to combat this.
Enough of the doom and gloom now, and back to being positive. I think sometimes just reflecting on the things that I have in my life, that I am so thankful for helps too. For example, I have a beautiful daughter, wonderful husband and family as well as a job that I enjoy.
The warmer weather always improves my mood as well. Seeing the sunshine seems to lift my spirits and I realise that there is lots to look forward to; family BBQs, days at the beach, swimming in the sea. all the little pleasures that make life so enjoyable. These are all positive events.
I am also blessed that I have wonderful friends, work colleagues and of course, the blogging community. Interaction with other people for me is very important. Despite my being reclusive at times, I still like to interact with others, and being able to do so online is great for me when I am in hermit mode!
So staying positive is, for me, all about being grateful for what I have, having goals and achieving them, and being surrounded by wonderful and supportive family and friends.
Having a baby is such a life-changing experience. You can’t wait to meet your little bundle and as soon as they are born, you oooh and aaaah over every little milestone, especially if they are your first. In this age of social networking, you can record and document everything for the benefit of your family and friends so they don’t miss out either.
How would you feel then if you received an anonymous letter through the post from some of your ‘friends’ slagging you off for your excessive Facebook posting? This is what happened to one poor Australian Mum.
Apparently, a group of her so-called fiends had got together and had written (or should I say typed. this was anonymous after all) to her telling her that they were fed up with her constantly posting pictures of her little girl. The said hurtful things like ‘they didn’t care that she was able to crawl on the carpet.’
They were also sick of the little girl modelling outfits that she had been given as gifts, telling her mother that she should ‘ send the person who sent the gift a private photo of her wearing it, rather than plastering it all over Facebook.
They also told this Aussie mum that they would be glad when she goes back to work so that she won’t have as much time to post as many pictures of her daughter online. These people, don’t forget, were supposed to be her friends!
However, this mum had a good friend who happened to be a comedienne with a load of Facebook followers. She sent the nasty note to her who posted it on her own page with a little message explaining how this ‘took bitching to a whole new level.’
I recently received the following invitation from Author SB Mazing
I’m about to invite you to join in a challenge I recently accepted. Five Photos, Five Stories. I thought this challenge could present you with the opportunity of viewing blogging from a different angle, to do something different, anything that suits you for that matter. It’s entirely up to you. …
The Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge rules require you to post a photo each day for five consecutive days and attach a story to the photo. It can be fiction or non-fiction, a poem or simply a short paragraph – it’s entirely up to you.
The photo I have chosen today is one taken last summer. It was a beautiful, hot day, so Mr Grump decided we would do a BBQ and invite some of the family and a couple of friends over.
It was a great evening, excellent food (Mr Grump is the best), lovely company and some decent music (in my opinion, but everyone seemed to enjoy it). Miss Hap had joined the loom band craze and had decided to make one for everyone, She was churning them out at an amazing speed, and the photo is some of us showing off her creations.
Just after we finished eating, the wind kicked up, and before we knew it the sky went black and the heavens opened, along with a spectacular thunder storm. Being the stalwart Brits we are, and used to such summer weather, getting everything taken indoors was a smooth operation, and the evening continued long into the early hours.
Then each day, nominate another blogger to carry on this challenge.
Accepting the challenge is entirely up to the person nominated, it is not a command. And actually everyone can join in. So feel free to if you like the idea.
I have come to the conclusion that I rather like blogging! I have been amazed at how many new people I have ‘met’ in the last 4 months since I started, and I even think of a few of them as friends. However, it is still a bit of a minefield for me, but luckily I am not the only one who is struggling with some of the aspects of blogging, which would never have occurred to me, before I started blogging myself!
I came across a post from My Thoughts On a Page who raised some very valid points on some of the dos and don’ts of blogging etiquette, as it were. Many of these thoughts had already crossed my mind as well….
Things like commenting, liking, reblogging articles etc are all very well and good, but I was very nervous of doing any of these things at first (especially on blogs with loads of followers) as I didn’t want them to think I was just doing it to promote myself. However, I in my opinion, blogging is supposed to be all about putting your work out there for others to see and enjoy! so if I like something, I will comment on it now, like it , and I have even reblogged one or two posts.
Yes, of course everyone wants their blog to be noticed, and they share it on social media sites like Facebook, Pinterest etc, as well as Twitter. Now I have a bit of a problem here as I don’t use my real name so can’t use my accounts to share my stuff! In fact only a handful of my friends and family even know that I have a blog. let alone what it is called!
I have set up Facebook and Twitter sites for my blog which is bloody pointless as I have less than 5 friends on each, and they have already seen my blog on WordPress anyway!! I am nothing if not a trier…..but I always get it wrong!
Lastly, no matter how many times I read about ‘tags’ it didn’t really sink into my thick skull and enter my brain However, today, as luck would have it, I saw in my reader this post by Opinionated Man. Fantastic, now I get it, and I will show off in a minute by tagging my post appropriately for once! (Well. I’ll give it a go)!
Even in writing this post, I had a dilemma! I got the inspiration for it from the two blogs that I have mentioned. Now, decency and good manners dictates that I should credit these blogs for giving me some ideas. However, will I have caused offence by drawing attention to my blog daring to pingback to TWO blogs?!
Well I don’t know, but as I bumble and blunder my way around this crazy blogosphere, trying to dodge the ‘mines’ along the way, I hope I continue to meet lots of new friends and discover many more new and interesting blogs. Oh yes, I hope that more people get to see mine too! 🙂
Rhyme and No Reason! 
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