The season of good intentions

There's a kind of "end of term" feeling for me at the moment.  Eurovision season is (officially) over for another year - although the analysis and the post mortems will carry on for a little while yet.
I'm still in that post-holiday mood which I'm trying very hard to keep going.  My plan for the remainder of this month is to publish all my outstanding blog posts about a) Eurovision and b) Brussels.

From tomorrow, my latest in a very long line of fitness campaigns begins, After tonight there will be no more binge eating or overdoing it.  It's about weight loss and fitness from now on, and it's also about putting a bit more structure back into my life, getting back into a decent sleep routine, and generally sorting out a lot of things which have drifted and/or been neglected over recent months. I need to start looking after myself again and I'm not going to do that sitting at a computer for hours on end, so that's why I need some time away from the internet, and that's what I'm going to do for June at least, and maybe some of July too.  I did an internet detox a couple of years ago and it was very constructive.

Blogging for life

Last Wednesday, my first born blog EuropeCrazy celebrated its 8th birthday.

I could never have imagined all those years ago where blogging would take me: that through it I would find new friends who share my interests, something which is virtually impossible in the 'real' world; that it would give me confidence to write about the things I loved; and that I would end up going on to produce three blogs and meet my all-time favourite singer twice.

The last 8 years of my blogging life have also been an accurate reflection of my real life: the glory days from 2007 to 2010, and the downward spiral from 2011 onwards.  With little exceptions (relationships, holidays and Eurovision) it would be fair to say that since the end of 2010, life has been pretty crap.  I get frustrated at not having the time or energy to blog more. I'm 8 years older, the demands of day to day life are often overwhelming, everything has just become tougher to deal with, and my time is more limited than ever.    

Yet the alternate-reality of blogging has always provided an escape from the 'real world'.  That was why I initially started EuropeCrazy, to give myself an outlet to write about my interests, about all the things which no-one else in my daily life knew or cared about.  Perhaps now, more than ever, I need that again.

The one thing I am sure of is that blogging is now such a part of my life that I cannot imagine it not being there.  It has not just become a fad or a temporary hobby - it's as much a part of me as everything else in my life and therefore I can't see it as anything other than a lifetime commitment. And for those who think blogging belongs to the past with the rise of Twitter, Facebook, vlogs, Instagram etc, then there is still a lot of life left in the blogging hobby all over the world if these statistics are anything to go by: http://aci.info/2014/12/27/the-state-of-blogging-in-2014/

So I'm in it for the long haul! :)

Autumnal

Although the weather has been rather nice over the last couple of days - no rain and even some sunshine, the fact remains that autumn is knocking on the door. So I guess it's time to change the colour of the blog yet again to a more appropriate autumn background.

Been feeling very lazy over the past couple of days. And why not? Still on holiday.

Messing around again

You'd think I had nothing better to do, spending my evening messing around with blog templates when in fact real-life-stuff is actually taking over, big time, and big upheaval is on the way at EuropeCrazy HQ - I'll find out on Tuesday just when it will all happen. All that and a holiday in two weeks...

Sunshine!

I'd forgotten what a blue sky or sunshine actually looked like after all these months of snow and rain! Yes the sun is shining, the sky is blue and I've been overwhelmed to turn my blog from withered brown to bright green as a celebration of spring. But, like the weather, it's subject to change. I'd actually been experimenting with new, non-Blogger-supplied templates today but it was all too complicated so it was back to something I felt more comfortable with.

It's been a nice weekend and the good news is that it's set to continue.

Holiday-planning is still ongoing, and there should be an announcement by the end of the coming week. The previous front-runner has now been overtaken by another front-runner!

Got lots of other things to do this week so there will be minimal blogging.

See ya!

A brief farewell....

As with my other two blogs I decided to post my new year greetings tonight. I just want to wish everyone a happy new year and all the best for 2010.

I'm taking a break for a couple of weeks as something has come up at home (nothing bad, just a sudden home-improvement thing which came out of the blue, we were expecting it but just not this early!) and it will require a lot of upheaval over the next week or so, therefore I'll be very busy and won't have time to blog until Monday 11th January, when I should be back in blog-land if things all go to plan.

In the meantime.....HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

Burnout!

As I said over at EuropeCrazy I'm taking a few days out of blog-posting (although I'll still be visiting all my blog-friends and leaving the odd comment or two). Normal (!) service will be resumed on Monday 22nd.

Pre-Christmas preparations + work stress + totally unrelated events = burnout!!

This is probably one of the most useless things ever, a blog post to announce a break from blog posts :O

Anyway this is my last day at work and I'll now be on holiday till the 29th - YAY!!!!!