Three years of blogging

Posted 2 months ago by radiosarahc15 Comments on Three years of blogging Thoughts, musings and randomness

Bloody missed the actual date didn’t I….

We’re four weeks into January and of course my yearly pledge to be more organised and pay attention to my diary has begun to falter. I’ve already managed to double book myself on three separate occasions, despite having the original appointment written down, I really should set myself the goal of not only using a diary/calendar but actually looking at it once in a while, it really would help.

Anyway, back to the original point of this post, the 20^th of January marked the 3^rd anniversary of this blog.

This is officially the longest I’ve maintained a hobby (because it is a hobby, not my income) as an adult. I have to say I’ve impressed myself because while it is a hobby, it is also a lot of work, sometimes it really pisses me off and I just can’t be arsed with it, yet despite that, I’ve never got to the point where I’m ready to throw the towel in completely….something that can’t be said for literally every other hobby I’ve tried as an adult.

So, in celebration of my three years, I’ve decided to recap on those many, many failed hobbies because without having tried them, I may not have found this one…..

1. BAKING.

This one was probably a nostalgia hangover from my food tech days at school. It’s no secret among my friends and family that I don’t cook; I can cook, to a degree, I’m not great at it so I don’t do it. My limited kitchen skills did not deter me from taking up baking circa 2010.

I started successfully with fudge. I made a decent banana loaf. I tried to make gingerbread biscuits; they weren’t great. I made some lacklustre mince pies. I put loads of effort into a Christmas cake, even though I knew no one in my family actually liked it. For a good few months, I was dedicated to baking, I saw myself as the next Mary Berry, even though I had not and still to this day have never watched a single episode of Bake off and therefore probably had no idea who she was.

And then I just abandoned my baking craze almost as quickly as I’d taken up.

• POLE DANCING

For fitness, not for cash, let’s make that clear.

So, after a hen do in 2017 where we did some kind of hoop acrobatics activity – this is the sort of organised fun you get roped into on UK hen dos – three of us decided to join a pole dancing class. Our previous experience consisted of dicking about on poles in nightclubs as teenagers, so what none of us were prepared for was HOW HARD IT IS.

Do you know how much upper body strength you need to pole dance? LOTS. Do you know how much upper body strength I have? ZERO.

Another fun fact about pole dancing, it leaves you with loads of bruises.

Still, I persevered for a good six months without getting any better at it before giving it up. If my journalism career goes tits up….pole dancing is certainly not going to be my fall back option.

• Any fitness class you can ever imagine.

I’m going to save myself and you a lot of time here, any fitness class that’s ever been dreamt up, I have had a go at. Spinning, Zumba, body combat, boogie bounce, insanity, circuit training, that weird dance fitness class that involved glow sticks; I’ve tried them all.

I throw myself into each class with the enthusiasm of a Jack Russel. I become one those annoying bell ends who preaches constantly about how good each class is, how it doesn’t feel exercise because its so much fun and how great the mental health benefits are; all of which is true, but no one needs or wants to hear it, especially as we all know that eventually I’ll stop going for one reason or another.

• Learning Spanish.

I started this in lockdown three, it could have been two.

I was a dedicated student on Duolingo, dutifully completing my lesson every day without fail. I was quite the run and getting quite good at it. In fact, I’d say I was better at Spanish than I ever was at German, the language I have a GCSE in.

I can still throw out the same Spanish phrases I’ve always been able to. Out of all the hobbies I’ve discarded, this is the one I’m determined to go back to, I’d love to be able to speak another language properly. 

• Netball

Didn’t even start this hobby, I saw something on Facebook and because it sounded like fun – it was post pandemic and post lockdown 315 or something – I signed up.

I was added to a WhatsApp group with 30 other women…that was my first red flag. I don’t want to be in a WhatsApp group with people I like never mind 30 strangers prattling on about netball ALL THE LIVE LONG DAY.

Thanks to this WhatsApp group, it quickly became apparent that this wasn’t going to be the “just for fun” I was looking for. Of course, the organisers soon started acting like head teachers. Within 24 hours there was talk of entering leagues, a list of rules and “People who don’t interact on the WhatsApp group will be kicked out”…thank fuck for that. I’ve nothing against being competitive but say that from the get-go, don’t masquerade as something else.

On that basis, I quickly accepted that this was not going to be fun, it had all become very serious, and I wasn’t up for being punished if I couldn’t attend training every week. 

There’s a few of the highlights, of course, there’s been plenty of other hobbies I’ve turned my hand to – drumming, karate, swimming, amateur dramatics, brass band, to name but a few.

I have over the years dreamt up many a grand scheme, things I’m going to achieve in my spare time. When we bought our house, I was adamant I was going to upcycle an old and extremely comfortable chair that the previous owners had left behind, I didn’t.

Last year, the garden was my big domestic project, that is a hobby that has stuck, despite having fallen behind on my winter maintenance. I am praying my Spring bulbs start to show signs of life in the coming weeks.

The reason this blog has stood the test of time is that there is actually no pressure.

To an extent (I obviously want people to read the damn thing), there’s no target or test to pass. I’m not going to get punished if I miss posting for a week (a regular occurrence). I’m not in competition with anyone, I can basically put in as much or as little as I choose which stops it from becoming a chore.

I think about all the hobbies I and other people have given up over the years, more often than not it’s at a point where it all becomes a bit too serious, when it starts to feel like hard work, rather than the fun it started out being.

On that note, as long as I’m still enjoying writing, I’m sure this blog will continue.

To everyone that’s ever read my ramblings and chatted with me about them, thank you, it is appreciated more than you’ll ever know.

xxxx

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Thoughts, musings and randomness

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Bloganuary, blogaversary, blogging, blogging community, hobbies, three years of blogging, writing, writing for fun

radiosarahc View All

Journalist, writer, traveller, music lover, collector of hats, news addict, bookworm