10 facts about me, right now!

It's been quite a while since I've written a blog post about some facts about me.   I think we change and constantly evolve so I thought it was worth a revisit, especially under lockdown conditions when really I have a learnt more about myself than ever before, so here without further ado are 10 facts about me right now!

1.  I am madly in love with music all over again, I tend to only really absorb myself in music when I'm in a good mental health space and at the moment, during the lockdown, I tend to listen to music every single day and when I say listen, I mean, I play it as loud as I can get away with and I sing along at the top of my voice, luckily for me, my very kind neighbours say that I can sing.  I'm actually having my first ever proper singing lesson tomorrow.  I wanted to challenge myself with something I didn't need my hands for and music is the thing I have loved my whole life, probably the most important thing I've never done anything with.  I doubt I ever will but I have a list of challenges I'm working on!

If you fancy knowing what I listen to a lot at the moment, what's in my daily playlist, I have a Spotify Playlist called Happy Music for Musical Moments!

2. I have a whole new love of good wine.  From 2011 until January this year I thought I had an allergy to alcohol and then my endocrinologist told me to stop taking Bendroflurothymazide and it turned out to be that which was causing the issue and now I can drink whatever I want.  I love good wine, not hugely expensive stuff, I'd say mid-price, my favourite wine website is Vinatis, I tend to go with bottles in the range of £10 - £30, my favourites being Chablis, Petit Chablis and Chardonnay, I also love a good Sancerre, I don't claim to be an expert but if you want to find your way to my heart you're going to have to at least know something about wine it's no good showing up with a bottle of own-brand vodka 😉

3. I love plants!  It doesn't matter whether it's indoor or outdoor, flowers or vegetables, fruit, cacti or succulents I just love plants and I think they make the best friends.  Oh, and yes, I do talk to them.

4.  I am completely obsessed with bees and gardening for wildlife, and there is a chance that if you have coffee with me I'm going to wax lyrical about just how much we need these insects in our lives! They are the rockstars of the insect world and we need to protect them. I've even taken to photographing them with a macro lens which only makes them even more adorable when you see them closeup.

5.  One definite thing I've learnt about myself during lockdown is how I get lost in my own obsessions and that comes from having a partly autistic brain but I also see this is a superpower, when I put my commitment to something, I really do commit with my whole heart. I do however understand how other people might just see this is completely odd and weird but if you can go there it's quite a wonderful thing.

6.  The lockdown has proved to me that I will never be able to live with anyone else ever again! Don't get me wrong I find it quite hard to live with myself and I also find it quite hard to be alone but I just need so much space and time in my own head I could never promise to commit to someone wholly and live with them.  I think it's important that I've learned this now before I even dream of finding someone.

7.  I love to cook and I find that cooking and baking is really relaxing but I also find that the one thing about living on your own, you can't just make a big cake because then you have to eat it all yourself! In a perfect world when the lockdown is over I will continue to cook and bake and just make sure lots of people come to eat at my house!

8.  I've also learned that I will never work the same way I did before the lockdown. As we've gone on over the weeks my anxiety has subsided the lowest it's ever been!  I've worked so hard for over a decade that it's made me super anxious.  I still don't have all the answers about what the future holds but I just can't be the person who works 60 hours a week and has no time for anything else other than that.

9.  The thing that I missed more in real life than anything else has been the ability to travel and just go on an adventure!  I think adventures are everything,  it doesn't have to always be big adventures, even the little ones count but I realise the adventures are one of the things that keep me going.

10. The lockdown has taught me that I love people, I miss people, but I also find peopleing exhausting! I think I probably knew that anyway but I am going to make more of an effort to be less of a hermit after the lockdown whilst remembering to take plenty of time for myself after every peopleing experience.