Whilst catching up on Twitter tonight I had a slight relevation...or maybe it's the sour cherry liqueur I'm drinking. A fellow twitterer (is that a real word?) has changed his username as he felt that he needed a change after posting under the same name since 2004. What it made me think about is if we ever realise how we're constantly changing and what we want from life is possibly changing too?
Back in 2004 I was quite unaware of how much my life would change. Going from day to day living in an ex-council house and working enough to pay the bills and not much more. I had animals then too, they've always been a large part of my life as far back as I can remember. Our first family pet when I was small was a goldfish called Chips, who ate any other fish we tried to put in the tank with him and lived until a ripe old age (well for a fish he did). When I left home the first dog came along (and stayed with me until she was 19 years old), then cats, followed by horses, goats and anything else I could fit on a rented 5 acre allotment plot.
My kids went to school locally and were doing ok, life was passing me by at an alarming rate and then I met hubby whilst I was working in a hotel. We were friends for quite a while and each went about our usual lives, until one day, when he felt sorry for me (it was my birthday) and invited me to an impromptu dinner party he was having at his house. And I can honestly say we've barely been apart since. It's strange how fate can suddenly take hold and alter your life forever.
Moving to Bulgaria was something that really came out of the blue too. Of course we'd talked about moving away but to start with it was little more than a drunken conversation after a night out, 6 months later we were on a plane and heading into unknown territory! Oh and it feels so long ago. We went from semi rural (supermarket 10 mins away, fields just outside) to the middle of nowhere really. And to be honest I much prefer the life we have here, maybe it is what we're meant to be doing with our lives? Who knows? As long as we do the best we can then we aren't letting anyone or ourselves down. I read somewhere once a quote that said "Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, martini in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO- HOO what a ride!".
How has your life changed over the last 10 years? and maybe more improtantly how much will it change in the next 10 years?
You really got me thinking with that one. Ten years ago my life was SO different.
ReplyDeleteLike you I was living in an ex-council house, with my ex-husband. My eldest son was in the British Army (in Kosovo I think at that time), my youngest was in secondary school and very unhappy. We lived from hand to mouth thanks mostly to my hubbys drinking habit and were set to stay in the same way of life forever. Two years later I left, found myself a rented house and moved out with my youngest son, my personal possessions and my four cats. I built myself a whole new life from scratch and a couple of years later met my Lovely Hubby. My eldest son is now a hard-working Heavy Goods driver, married with 4 children, and my youngest has just graduated from University with his Masters Degree after already getting his Forensic Science degree a couple of years ago.
As you say 'fate can suddenly take hold and alter your life forever' or in my case I grabbed at a whole new life and just went for it!
Now my Blog charts our lives and the fun (and sometimes yucky times) we have, but the main thing is we have it together, with love, laughter and always optimism. The best is yet to come!!
Loved this Blog post, thanks for getting me thinking.
Have a lovely day.
Sue xx
Wowww yes 19 years is a long time and so very different!! I would never have beleived I would end up in Bulgaria!! My theory in life is that everything happens for a reason, and usually a good one, although it's hard to beleive that at the time sometimes. I often pondered how we all ended up where we were etc in my youth, how some of us are stayers and some are movers, so to speak. The rest of my immediate family have never moved more than 30 miles from our home town of Darlington, so why did I??? I moved away at 22 and have never looked back really, so it's intreguing to know why we are so different and what spurs us to up sticks and move??!!
ReplyDeleteI too love my life here and can't think why it took me so long to move here, although at the time it took less than a year to do so! I remember my mum saying though, that when we bought the house here she knew we would move here, maybe she knew something we didn't.
Glad you enjoy the emails Suz, I know they brighten up my life, sometimes just in time too.
Stay safe xx
Shirley :D
Have been lurking for awhile and just wanted to say hello. What a great post. Yes you are right, life is not a dress rehersal and you have got me thinking too. Maybe now is the time to escape and find a different, more satisfying kind of life.
ReplyDeleteJak x
Hello and welcome Jak, great to see you here.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad this post has brought about a few comments already. I don't usually post anything too deep and meaningful but I guess I've got a little extra "Quiet" time to think and reflect at the moment.
No worries though as I'll be back to waffling on again soon :)
SuzyJ x
Loved this post Suzy esp the bit about getting to the grave - that made me laugh :-)
ReplyDeleteIt was a big change for us too....we were living in a huge old victorian house in the centre of Blackpool. Very noisy, town centre, night clubs etc about 500 meters away. My kids thought it was totally normal for woman to dress as nurses and nuns, and men wear fake plastic boobs on a saturday night out - lol
Our office was 300meters from our front door -so we were in the middle of town for 95% of the time. I suddenly realised there was no reason to stay there. The weather was vile - wet and always windy; our kids were home educated cos the schools were so bad, and all our money went on paying bills and trying to keep the house warm!! Our work is online, and we don't have customers in the UK, so we can live 'anywhere' there is good internet.
And here we are in tiny very tiny village in the foothills of a Balkan mountain range:-) Internet is good (the biggest problem finding a village house was internet) but international banking is rubbish, and the trip to Sofia airport is more than boring now. Kids are happy in school - but I still miss the UK and city life and girly lunches.
I like hearing how people ended up in Bulgaria - its usually an interesting story :-)