It's obviously been a while since I wrote here. I keep a private diary which I write in most days, and there's a fair amount there that I'm never making public!
There's far too much to catch up on since Summer 2022. Here are some highlights.
In June 2023 I went to Palomares in Spain. A friend has an apartment out there and I stayed with them, but most of the time I was left to my own devices and travelled solo. I've travelled solo before for work but never for leisure, and it was well outside my comfort zone, especially as my Spanish is limited to asking for a beer or asking where the library is! But I had a nice relaxing time and it gave my self-confidence a much needed boost.
At the end of July I went to Amsterdam with my friend Jon. Had a great time, the highlight was the Van Gogh museum - we were rushed for time as we needed to be at the airport, otherwise I could have stayed there for hours. We also did a boat trip and went to the Body Works exhibit.
I took the kids camping again at Rushbanks and we had a good time, the only downer being the water quality preventing us from swimming - thanks Tories! We're going again this year, hopefully the water will be less polluted. I also took them all to Thorpe Park, it was Rory's first time and he loved it. The highlight was getting on the front row of Stealth with Rory.
Rory passed his 11+ and will be going to the same school as Nicky, which means I won't have to install a whole plethora of other school apps! He also got a higher score than Nicky did, you obviously can't compare year to year but that hasnt stopped Rory from rubbing it in.
This year I've been trying to push myself further out of my comfort zone. The week before Valentines I had booked an IQ test with Mensa, and I decided to make a day out of it. I went to some museums and had lunch on my own. I'd never have done this a few years ago so it felt good. I wasn't feeling 100% for the test - I coughed throughout (I spent several months coughing, it wasn't Covid) but thought I did OK. In the end I just missed out on qualifying for Mensa - my Stanford-Binet score is 131 and Mensa need 132. But it was still a boost to be in the top 3% of the country and I think I'd have done better if I hadn't been coughing so much. I can try again in a year but I don't know that I necessarily need to.
I did a singing workshop which went mostly well, my singing confidence isn't as low as it used to be. I've also joined a cricket team (alcohol makes you agree to some weird things!) and my first game is hopefully on Saturday.
In a turn-up for the books I actually met someone via a dating app and it went really well! We got on brilliantly and it was all very intense. Everything was perfect until it wasn't. She ended it after a month. Usually in this kind of situation I'd blame myself even if I hadn't done anything wrong. But I've not been allowed to, my friends have been there for me. Usually I'd get a range of responses from people but every single person I've told about this says I've done nothing wrong and can't believe it ended for that reason. But such is life. I'm taking advantage of everything being calm, for the first time in a couple of years I'm not worrying or overthinking things.
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