Today has been a grey and foggy day, it’s felt like a real reflection of the mood of the last month. As I’ve driven around Cheltenham today doing some bits and bobs, I’ve seen more and more people starting to put up Christmas trees and lights. It’s been nice to see them emerging out of the gloom.

Today marks the start of Advent, with the first candle being lit in churches across the country we are reminded of the hope that comes from Jesus. The arrival of the King.

At the start of this year I started to go to a new church, given the pandemic if might not have been the best time, but the services I’ve been attending online have been ones of great comfort. They have shown great care, sensitivity, and compassion throughout the year, and I’m incredibly thankful that God guided me to this church. I’m looking forward to being able to go to a service again, I hope it is sooner rather than later. I’m sure it will be.

Today is Thanksgiving in America, and despite being a Brit I thought it would be good to try and post something I’m thankful for this year. I started to write this post at lunchtime, and struggled, I couldn’t zero in on something. This evening after my counselling session I realised what it is I’m thankful for this year. I’m thankful for all the people who have helped my family navigate through the year. The members of their church, some old friends from previous churches, some new friends, some new colleagues who have become friends. Some people who were friends and I’ve discovered are now very good friends. For all of them I am thankful, we couldn’t have done it without you.

I’ve had this blog in one form or another since I was 21, earlier posts have been lost in the many transitions it has made but it’s always been there. A hobby that taught me how to design and build websites that has since become my career.

At the moment I think I am in one of the longest streaks of not posting to the site that I’ve ever been on. For the last few weeks I’ve wanted to start posting again, I’m seeking to revive a hobby that was once very enjoyable to me. The trouble is I don’t know where to start or what to write. So, I’m writing this post as an acknowledgement of some very difficult events.

The last two years have been two of the hardest of my life. This time two years ago I was working part-time in a speciality coffee shop, doing some freelance design work, and contracting in to a local studio. There was a promise that my contract position would become full time in the next six months. At the beginning of April last year, a conversation that I thought would be about going full time was a conversation about the studio changing their mind. A month later I was no longer working there. A month after that the final client for my freelance business, which I was winding down due to the aforementioned promise, understandably told me they had made other arrangements for their website.

Alongside the work situation I was dealing with some things in my personal life. The culmination of all these events, alongside an unsuccessful gruelling seven week interview process, resulted in a mental breakdown and the return of my depression in August last year.

One positive is that somehow, in the middle of that breakdown I managed to think clearly enough for an hour-long interview that resulted in the job I have now been in for over a year. I can only thank God for that.

Then 2020 happened. A global pandemic has thrown the world into chaos as Covid-19 has swept across the world. Normal life has been taken away which for everyone has been a difficult adjustment. In the midst of this my Mum has been undergoing treatment for cancer and my Dad has had and recovered from a stroke.

I’m hoping that by writing this post it will help to remove the block I have been struggling with when it comes to posting to this site. Through counselling I have come to realise the importance of taking care of yourself properly. I have realised that I need hobbies in my life and I would like to start blogging here again as a first tentative step to building some healthy habits. I didn’t feel I could get that going again without acknowledging recent events, so here I am taking a scary step and daring to put into words some of the hardest experiences I have had to go through.

Feeling the itch to redesign my blog for the first time in a long time. Might use it as a way to establish my own base theme as a starting point and then design on top of that.

Trying to limit myself to only having two books on the go at any one time this year. One fiction and one non-fiction. Part of that will mean deciding to stop reading a book if I’m not enjoying it or getting anything from it.

How good would it be if we could attach Shortcuts to notification types? For example, if I have a shortcut that makes it easier for me to add purchases to YNAB, I could attach it as an action to Apple Pay notifications so that with one touch the shortcut could take the value and vendor, fill in the right fields and let me categorise the transaction. It would be so useful.

On a somewhat related note, I have two draws of DVDs that I never use. I feel like I should get them on to some storage and make them easier to watch, but not sure if it’s worth the effort or cost.

Had a productive yet restful Saturday, managed to sort out a load of paperwork and do a grocery shop. Lots of my flat feels pretty organised now, but I still have a few black holes that become dumping zones. Those need to be sorted and reviewed.

Had to reset my Apple ID password, now things aren’t syncing in iMessage. Not a good experience.

Took the church youth out bowling this evening, great fun had by all as far as I could tell. Got my best score in a while so I’m pretty pleased!

Over the last year I’ve been using YNAB to help manage my finances. It wasn’t all plain sailing, I had to start fresh on it a couple of times, but it certainly helped me steward my money more wisely. Going into 2018 I had one big goal: get rid of my credit card debt. On 31st December I made the final payment and for the first time in a long time I head in to a new year debt free. As I setup some new categories in YNAB this afternoon, it was incredible how freeing it is not having something there nagging at you.

My Apple TV seems to have gained some new flyover screen savers, some particularly interesting ones of London and a great one flying over Italy at night.