Kicking Myself up the Arse
This blog has been unspeakably rubbish recently. There. I said it. I've been churning out posts like some sort of cheap sausage machine – more because I thought I should than because I had anything to say. It's a slippery slope, and I have no idea how to halt the slide.
Earlier this evening I read a wonderful post by a blogger I've been following for a while, and it reminded me what a blog can be – how honest, transparent, candid, and brave we can be when we empty our head into the keyboard. Some people are natural story tellers – drawing us into their adventures, escapades, triumphs and disasters. When searching for escape, they take us with them, and we forget about our lives for a few minutes. She somehow does that – seemingly without effort. I admire people with that sort of talent enormously.
Maybe a goal for the year ahead should be to get back to the posts I used to write – that I know I can still write if I apply myself – stories of days filled with strange people, unlikely situations, and relatable idiocy. There's only one problem – in order to have stories to tell, you have to live them in the first place. Sitting at a desk every weekday, drowning in chores every evening, and standing on sports ground touch-lines on weekends doesn't provide a very deep well of stories.
Maybe I should make them up. Walter Mitty was pretty entertaining, wasn't he? I'm not sure I would make a very good liar though – I would end up finishing every story with 'but of course, none of this really happened'.
Anyway. It's the rules by the way – I always write 'anyway' at about this point in a post, and change subject. It's a thing I do. Every time.
You know that whole 'writing loads of letters this year' thing I started on? That's going to have to pause for a few months. We kind of ran out of money in the bank in spectacular fashion. It had a lot to do with first having to rent a car, then failing to fix our old car, then buying a new car. At Christmas. Any outgoings deemed 'nice to have' have been cut – and that included postage stamps for transatlantic letters. The kids realised the enormity of our situation when I cancelled Netflix and Spotify – it's been educational for them.