Back in to the fray!

Ok, so six years on from my last blog post I have decided I might give this a go again. I was just going to start a completely new site, but after coming back here I felt oddly nostalgic. I was going to delete all my old posts, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I found it interesting to look back at how I was back then. So much has changed and yet also a lot of things are still pretty much the same.

To summarise what happened to me since my last blog post:

• I finished learning to drive and got a car
• I got my first big tattoo.
• I wrote a fair chunk of the novel I'd been thinking about; then got distracted by life, put it on a back-burner and eventually lost interest. I don't think it would have been very good anyway.
• I left the postal job for a new job looking after military working dogs.
• I moved to Leicestershire for the new job, without knowing anybody or the area.
• I started the full sleeve tattoo I'd been thinking about. Then I finished that, and a full sleeve on my other arm.
• I met someone online and we eventually moved in together. He came with a dog, so I finally have a pooch!
• I did start selling pet portraits, although I haven't really done any for a couple of years.
• My Nan deteriorated and eventually passed away.
• I crashed my car into a field, wrote it off and never bothered to get another one.
• I left the kennel job and did a dog grooming course.
• We decided to move to Bristol where a lot of my friends were.
• We moved into a shabby shared house with a couple of friends (and subsequently some nice randoms when our friends couldn't take the house anymore).
• I got a job working for a veterinary charity; trying and failing to get back on the path to veterinary nursing again. I also realised that unless you set up your own dog grooming business it is incredibly difficult to find someone to give you any experience or a job.
• I left the job at the vets after the night work started making me ill and they made it clear I wasn't getting the chance to progress any time soon.
• We moved out of Bristol, to a nice quiet suburb of Weston-Super-Mare.
• I worked as a temp in an office for a while until the dullness and the commute got to be too much.
• I started formulating plans to set up a dog-friendly cafe and pet shop, but they remain plans until I somehow have enough money to set it up :(
• I got married! XD
• My Dad moved around the corner.
• I took at job working in a cafe/shop at a well known holiday camp (despite actually applying to work in the laundry and having no experience of working in a kitchen). The particular branch where I was catered mostly for over 50's and large events and was often very busy.
• I left there because I was getting too stressed by the increasing pressure and by the unpredictability of the zero hours contract. 
• I now work part time in the staff canteen of a supermarket. I did not think I would ever work in food, but for now I seem to be quite enjoying it and I haven't poisoned anybody so far!

As for things that are still the same, the list is also quite long! My mind is still very much like the soup I described it as before. I still have multiple projects on the go that I get distracted from and can't finish. I still haven't done anything lasting to be healthier and I still feel like my life is going nowhere. I still don't see people as much as I'd like (although at least now I have one other person who I can see all the time). I am still broody for dogs even though I have one (he needs a playmate I think). I also still have no idea which direction I should take this blog.

I'm thinking that for now it will do me good just to have something to write about; to get my brain back in to a more writery mindset. I'm going to see if I can manage to get something written down weekly to start with. It will also make me more accountable for all the projects I've got on the go if other people are aware of them. Sometimes I think I just need that extra bit of pressure to actually get things done; not that I'm particularly convinced anyone will actually read it , but the thought that somebody could might just be enough. We shall see I guess!