Reviving my Writing

Or rediscovering my inner life.

Hi! Long time no see.

Sorry, I disappeared. It’s been a long year. A really long year, and a lot has happened. I ran the London Marathon, even though I was injured. I went away in a camper van for a whole month, then came back and BOUGHT a camper van. I lost the 3 stone that went on with the steroids, and finally did what I threatened in this post, and stopped taking my maintenance meds, opting to take my chances and maybe have a bit of energy.

Maybe that’s what’s sparked this sudden return to writing? The removal of a bit of that medication-induced brain fog. There’s still a LOT of fog in there, I’m a 47 year old woman, 4 years out of a stem cell transplant, in medical menopause and living with an incurable cancer, trust me theres a lot of fog in my brain, but without the meds causing such fatigue I feel a bit like I can finally at least feel my way through it instead of sitting down and hoping someone finds me.

If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll know I’ve still been wittering on over there, but the truth is, I know in my heart I’m a writer. I use way too many words for Instagram. I do pictures and long captions. If you follow my stories, you’ll have to use “hold to read” quite a lot. I am not a woman of few words. So I’m back on Substack to tell you about my life, what’s annoying me (a lot, despite my sunny disposition) and other stuff. If there are things you’d like me to talk about over here, let me know. If you’re desperate to hear more of my thoughts on what it feels like to suddenly look in the mirror and realise you are 5 years older than Shirley Valentine, or to be constantly running away from the incoming bus that is incurable cancer, then let me know.

In the meantime, I’m just going to finish up this little reintroduction with a few other things I’ve been up to this year.

- I started a Podcast with my longtime internet vintage-loving pal Kate.
- I went on holiday, twice. To Croatia and Morocco. It’s been a long time since I went on a proper holiday like that, and I plan to go on more!
- I finally hit 10k followers on Instagram, after 14 years on the platform. So not exactly fast-growing, but it’s been my goal since the days when you had to have 10k to add links, so quite a while.
- I got an office! I no longer work on my sofa all day! I leave the house and get dressed!
- I started taking Mounjaro; I’ll probably chat about this, because it’s a bit of thing right now, but it’s been great for me, for very specific reasons.
- I started a Community Interest Company; I’m hoping to convert to a charity soon, but I don’t know what I’m doing. A Life in Progress provides reboot boxes to people in hospital for a stem cell transplant.
- I started doing reformer Pilates. It makes me feel like I should buy a Stanley cup and drink matcha.
- I went out for lunch in a white dress and came home without having spilt anything on it (This deserves to be recorded for posterity)

I have to say, this feels a lot more positive than last time I abandoned my blog and came back and had to tell everyone I was dying of cancer.

What have you been up to for the last year?