Fun Monday# 31

Lisa's Chaos is our host and she's want's to know more about us... is it wise to disclose too much I ask myself!! Lisa says...

"I’d like to know more about you, what makes you tick. I’d like to know how you started blogging. Did you keep a diary under lock and key safely hidden as a child? Do you still? Do you share the same things on your blog that you would have, or do, in your diary? Why did you start blogging and why do you continue? May as well throw in any roadblocks you have run into while blogging. If you still have your old diaries we’d love to see them".

I think I'll start with blogging because that's an easy one and really the answer is in my profile. I only started my blog last September before then I had been reading a lot of food blogs since my daughter Sam started Becks & Posh in May 2004. Seeing what she was doing somehow made me feel I was still involved with her life even though she was on another continent.
Once I had made the decision to retire I began to panic! Work had been the pivotal part of my life since I was forced to provide for my family back in 1973.

(I always wanted to be a stay at home mum but sadly this wasn't to be- I often wonder how things would have turned out if our lives hadn't changed so dramatically back then. I also wonder how much my having to work affected the way the girls developed and I don't necessarily mean this in a negative way. There are many things I would do differently if I could turn back the clock but my girls are kind, independent, talented individuals who make me very proud).

As usual I digressed so back to the main plot. Sam had been telling me to start a blog, one part of me was thinking to myself I could do that 'it's only a diary' the other part of me was saying but that's too technical for me as I'm not a clever writer and not a good photographer (I always manage to get something awful in the background). Anyway when people asked me at work 'what were my plans' I took the bull by the horns and said I was going to upgrade my home computer and start a blog, I was going to try my hand at painting and travel as much as I could afford. My blog was going to be a way of keeping in contact with the girls and any friends who cared to read it. I think you will see how I came up with the name as it was going to full of 'bits and pieces.

Once I told Beccy I was going to start a blog she followed suit (she might even have beaten me to the first post I can't quite remember). My grandchildren also have blogs and I started a second blog for random photographs a few months back. What I never ever imagined would be the enjoyment I have got from finding a whole new circle of friends, joining in the different swaps, sharing joys (I do a lot of laughing) and sorrows (I also cry quite a lot) and even getting to have a couple of great telephone conversations with one bluddy! Here I must pay tribute to Fun Monday because this been a very effective way of meeting even more people. I don't know about anyone else but I really love seeing houses being built, following pregnancies, hearing about children, pets and holidays. I am full of admiration for those who share some very personal stories and often it's about things that touch a chord, maybe I should try it one day as I know it can be very cathartic.

Now to diaries: I think as a teenager I did try writing a diary but do you know I never kept it up and I certainly would NOT have committed my innermost thought to paper. I could not have trusted my father not to read it and I was far too scared of him to write anything he would disaprove of- actually it might have done him good to read what I thought of his methods of discipline and the way he didn't trust me even though I had never given him any real cause to feel this way. But that's another story I may write about one day.

I think I will leave it there!! By the way I have done quite a bit of travelling in the past eleven months but have not even opened up the paints yet (just in case you comment Purpleworms- who is giving me a prod every now and then- I will get there!).

I must remember there is no Fun Monday next week but the following week September 10th Nikki is the host.