I am ever hopeful of a call from NASA to join the space programme, until then a few thoughts on the first thirty-one days of 2016. I read somewhere in this wonderful world of WordPress that it was good to recap your blog occasionally. Where you are at, where you are going, that sort of thing.
Well here goes! Once upon a time I quite liked to drink, for no particular reason it just became a habit. A bad one, that made me lazy, irritable and unfit (what’s changed I hear those that know me cry). You get the picture though. It also suppressed any kind of artistic thoughts I ever had or dreamed of having.
To cut a long story short I stopped drinking altogether nearly two years ago. Around the time I started my blog. It was and has been a great help. It became an avenue for any artistic leanings I may have. It has also given me something to do in the afternoons and evenings, other than having fun drinking!
This then is my blog. Ramblings, writing, photography. Tales of daring do at home and abroad. Not too much personal stuff, this is the worldwide web after all. I like the company of family, friends, dogs and cats. When anything happens to them or I don’t see them enough, it makes me sad.
My blog I hope is positive, as the ‘new’ me tries to do and say positive things each day. I can be prone to a bit of moaning and groaning, it’s a middle-aged thing I think. Generally though I have been very lucky with life and work.
Things though have begun to feel a little stale and I have been spending less time blogging. The more confident I have become with social media, the more I have expanded. I have been trying Facebook, never off Twitter and recently having a real go at Instagram. My addictive personality if I have one has found new avenues. All of this has meant that I have been loosing interest in my blog. Loosing interest in my initial goals to write, take photographs and improve them both.
The other thing I found was that the instant uncensored nature of Twitter was getting me down. It depends who you follow but for me the constant drownings of refugees in Europe, a seeming proliferation of right-wing attitudes and intolerance was frustrating.
I began spending more time reading Twitter and getting annoyed, than doing anything else. A good thing has come out of it. My politics have changed, not much but they’ve shifted. Politics though isn’t my game and I won’t change the world by constantly retweeting about unfortunate people dying in the Mediterranean (hundreds this year already).
This is where this train of thought started. I was going to say 2016 had been a bad year as so many celebs had died. True and sad but many people are dying daily in Europe and beyond because of wars. Our answers to these problems are not always kind and constructive.
I needed a break from instant bad news and distractions from my blog. I have therefore today given up Twitter and Instagram, Facebook went after two weeks trial at Christmas. My later life seems to be about giving things up, that addictive personality again. As well as booze I have in the last few years given up eating meat and also religion (no offence to those who haven’t given up any or all of the aforementioned).
The bottom line and point to all this. I will continue to take a close interest in charities I have discovered on Twitter (MSF, MOAS, UNICEF, Simon On The Streets, Proactiva Open Arms). I will seek out the news carefully. One thing I have learnt is that broadcasters I thought did, don’t always give a fair representation of what is happening in the world.
As far as ‘The Rambling Gardener’ goes, it’s back to basics. Create the best blog I can before I attempt to change our broken world and conquer all forms of social media. Either that or I buy a bottle of Gin and I’m not quite ready for that. I have wanted to say for a while a few things publicly including this, racism, intolerance and apathy are bad. Stay strong and if you’ve read this the whole way through, thanks.
