My daughter collected her GCSEs yesterday and, having successfully achieved the requisite grades for her choice of course, is going to college* in September.
This isn’t really my news to share, so I don’t want to get into the nitty gritty about grades and courses and choices (funny how I used to blog everything and then having kids flipped that upside down) but it feels like too significant a milestone to pass by without comment. I’ve not really done a good job of journaling these since she was a toddler, something I regret now.
I think it feels particularly poignant because of the struggles we’ve had at home and at school over the years (spoilers: undiagnosed autism x 2 isn’t fun), but maybe I’m actually doing an OK job at dragging her up despite my many failings & f*ck-ups?!
I look forward to seeing how college shapes her, and what the next couple of years have in store…
* For my American readers: UK ‘college’ is further education completed after school at age 16-18, generally. USA ‘college’ is more akin to university here.
I’ve spent the past couple of weeks watering someone else’s garden. (This isn’t some ~deep~ metaphor, I’ve literally been watering someone else’s garden.) My daughter agreed to water her boyfriend’s parent’s garden while they’ve been away on holiday, and as they live two villages over and she doesn’t drive, it inevitably fell on to me… read full entry »
I spotted Online Goddess’ blog post, Re: An Infuriating Goodbye to Photoshop, which itself is a reply to Gavin Anderegg’s An infuriating goodbye to Photoshop on Bubbles and had to add my tuppence worth. Like Gavin and OG, I’ve been using Photoshop a long time. I switched to Photoshop 5 after Corel bought Paint Shop… read full entry »
I spotted Bubbles in my basic referrers this morning, and my heart lit up. A little directory, surfacing blog posts from actual bloggers, what in the old web is going on?! This isn’t the first time I’ve spotted a resurgence in indie / ‘old’ web stuff lately. Personal sites are making a comeback, bloggers are… read full entry »
I had a quick flick through the 50+ drafts dating back to 2013 sat in the back-end this morning and spotted one near the top entitled ‘West Midlands Autumn Cup Powerlifting Competition’. That comp happened nearly three years ago (September 2023) which really cements how bad I’ve been at blogging over the last few years…. read full entry »
I completed another of my 40 before forty list last week and fulfilled a childhood dream in the process: I went up in a hot air balloon. Shane bought the balloon vouchers for me for Christmas last year, and after redeeming the vouchers with Wickers World we had repeatedly tried to book evening flights, but… read full entry »
I’ve started writing a post to sum up hitting 40 and a recap on my progress on all the things I wanted to achieve before I hit 40 about 6 times since the start of January and each time I get about one paragraph in and the inspiration just fizzles out. I think it’s partly… read full entry »
Well, not mine, per se. Anyone’s would do. I’ve been ill, on and off, since about August. A cold that started to mend then covid hit that started to mend then a sinus infection that started to mend and then a cold again… you get the gist. At my weakest, most pathetic moment – when… read full entry »
In news that surprises absolutely nobody, I’ve gone another year where I’ve barely blogged. I realised earlier this year that it’s not for lack of things to talk about – christ, this year has had some moments – but rather this feeling that every post must be polished, have an accompanying featured image, have the… read full entry »
If you read my last post, you’ll know that I’ve been thinking about doing the “75HARD” social media challenge for a while, but have been put off by the creator’s sketchy opinions and general persona (that’s basically the gist of the previous post, no need to read it now) I went on to Instagram earlier… read full entry »