So the middle age - I'm gonna make it fun

Welcome to adulthood, if you sleep on the pillow wrong, you’ll feel like you got in a motorcycle accident for the next three days.

So yes, I have decided to make sure that my descent into being middle-aged is going to be a blast.  No one knows what's ahead, so I'm going to do my best to be proud of what I have achieved and glad that I have had fun with the people I love.

I'm struggling a bit with my list, but here is what I have so far:

• See the northern lights (properly!)
• Fly a plane
• Visit the Ice Bar
• Visit NZ/Australia/Canada
• Host a party
• Try a new sport
• Drink alcohol in bed
• Learn to make and exotic cocktail really well
• Perform a random act of kindness for a stranger
• Throw a surprise party
• Do up a piece of furniture
• Start a business
• Sleep in a castle
• Donate to a food bank
• Get my Masters
• Eat chips on the pier
• Get a dog
• Make a snow angel
• Go in a hot air balloon
• Write a short story / comic strip
• Try coke
• See all the UK Clearwings
• Read a classic I’ve not read before
• Make a five-year plan
• Volunteer for the homeless
• Tidy the living room!
• Take part in amateur dramatics

And that's where I ran out.... I need help? What's fun or meaningful? Suggestions, please.

If it involves fake smiling, I probably won't come.

Well, it has been a time of introspection and planning... mostly because I've only just run out of fingers on which to count the number of times I've left the house, this summer.

But amazing things are happening and it turns out it's as easy as asking if people want to get involved. What was once a three-man South Devon team is now 14-strong and UK wide (OK, not strictly UK-wide - we're still unrepresented in Ireland, but we'll get there!) and creating fantastic ways for people to explore nature. 

So it seems it's a new age for Wild Ideas as well as for me.  So I have decided that, from now on, I will focus on the future and leave the past behind. 

I appreciate is probably not great news for everyone I owe money to.

And now it's so strange to observe people's reactions to coming out of the lockdown.  I guess my social skills have improved, because I've been invited to so many 'garden parties' that it's exhausting to even try to schedule them.  And also, it turns out that it's not "appropriate" to decline on the basis that attending involves too much fake smiling on my part.

Thing is, I'd totally go, but it's straight up disappointing that the conversations I have with people in real life are never as good as they are when I practise them in my head.

So, no, I'm good thanks.  I have to stay home and finally watch Waterworld so I have something new to moan about.

Fun with Shotcut

So recently, one of my crazy friends introduced me to a new group of amazing people who love to play silly games.  During the lockdown, we've been taking part in some really silly tasks.  As I'm 'a bit' camera-shy, I decided that playing with footage would be a better way of demonstrating my task completion without scaring people with my face, too much.

So I downloaded Shotcut and had a play.... This was an early play at making a documentary about something in my home...

  

It's probably obvious that I was having fun.  Granted, it took me several hours to make this simple clip, but that would surely change.

So, over the next month, I played more and turned my mind to making clips for the Wild Ideas Wild at Home project - this is a project delivered by around 12 volunteers at any one time, from all over the UK, creating content to encourage communities to engage with nature, especially during the lockdown period.

A month on, it's that little bit smoother and I'm making snippets 

with educational content and activities.  I've got a bit of a thing about ickle squills, so that was my next port of call....

 

I'm continuing to work with the team to create videos and I'm getting quicker... though that will slow down as I practise with new stuff.... next I want to make professional-looking credits and nonsense like that.

I am, though, missing the silliness... I need a very silly topic, just for fun.  Watch this space.

Facing the future

2019 is my year. No doubt.

I have my dream job (it's part time, but there's only so much happiness that the human brain can take) and I also get to spend time working towards my licenses, while handling sleepy little fluff-balls and chasing zooming lizards.

It's a dormouse! HOW cute? So fluffy and docile ♡

I guess it's not everyone's cup of tea, but believe me, I am in such a good place that I squee several times a day.

I've taken my good time getting here, though. I mean, I've reached that age where I wonder, on a daily basis, whether I have cataracts or if my glasses are dirty, again.

It also transpires that one never outgrows that emotional need for stationery.

Is there anyone else who finds it impossible to walk past the notepads and diaries?

Learning about life and love

I have learned so much about people, this year.  Through close attention and just generally putting in the hours and hard slog, I have gained an understanding of love and relationships through Disney quotes.  

Right now, this feels so relevant to me:  I was hiding under your porch because I love you. – UP

Grin and bear it...

2018 - A year of death, deception, divorce, desire, betrayal and bravery.

I'm not entirely sure I haven't spent this year living in a soap opera; it would explain so much.

So, that all important tally...

Friends who have died: 1 

(plus one dubious claim of I've been dead).

People who have betrayed me: 1

People on whom I will exact revenge: 1

Family members in hospital: 2

Nights sat up nursing broken hearts: 3

.....

Paper cuts: 0

So, it's not all bad.

Also, I found out that you can get vegetarian gummy bears.  My life is complete.

Should I choke to death on one, please let it just be said that I was killed by a bear.

Slush Skillz

So, how's the training going, Slushter?

Aw, thanks for asking. Yeah, I thought it was all going OK, but my tutor told me, today: I just don't think you're cut out to be a mime.

It must have been something I said.

.......

.....

...

.

Yeah, OK, I'm not getting any work as a stand up, either... but it's all going rather swimmingly. I've submitted another assignment, this week and I'm off doing some more i.d. stuff, this weekend and bat activity surveys next week.

It's not leaving much time for anything else, but it's stopping me from twiddling my thumbs quite so much and it's keeping my brain working - this makes me happy.  A happy Slush doesn't waste time wondering whether there's an alternate universe in which odd socks randomly appear in the washing.

Well, it's getting late. I'll leave you with some words of wisdom from a chap I used to work with. We will call him Simon because that is his name.  Simon told me:

Debs, it's never too late to shut your mouth.




Similar advice works if you're not called Debs.

Where are you, bayayayabeeee?

Yeah, sorry, I've been a bit busy, it's all a bit more serious than I like to keep these pages, so the dream team started up a new blog over at Stuff in the Muff... it's predominately cutesy little flowers, bees, weevils and stuff... not so many jokes as you get, here.

So, I've been retraining, learning my plant id, taking up a martial art (just for larks, I don't have any real desire to look at grading, at the moment) and making some changes to my appearance. Sounds like a mid-life crisis, right? Yeah, we all saw it coming!!

Part of this has been my dormouse training... Seriously, they are adorable... I totally got told off for stroking one on a training day. I didn't even realise I was doing it... won't happen again. Promise.

Hazel dormouse (Muscardinus avellanarius) and human bean (Homo sapiens)

Hazel dormouse (Muscardinus avellanarius)

So, sorry if you've missed me, my hand was forced in this... I have about nine months left on my contract.... and I genuinely do not know what happens next, so I wanna be ready for whatever comes my way.

I'll be OK, though. I mean, let's face it, I'm adorable.  Mostly.  Well, OK... possibly not, I mean I've got a good heart, but my mouth's a complete bitch.

Maybe it's time to go shopping, after all, I'm nicer when I like my outfit.

Right, the sun is shining, so I need to be outside, catching a tan.... (coff)

Hakuna matata xx

It never rains but the shower's broken....

Ah, home ownership, it's a never-ending joy, right?

So, I have a bathroom issue that I have no idea how to fix. I thought I'd better get someone in to fix it, so I googled 'plumber shower'....

Now I have a broken bathroom and a pornhub addiction.

But, Debs, I hear you cry, how's the diet going?  Well, I have done more walking this week than I had, so far, this year. It has been a whirl of surveys and habitat assessments.

On the flip side, I have also eaten my body weight in biscuits.  I now know for certain that (Debs fact HJ003513) my favourite biscuit is the fruit shortie but I have also failed to lose any weight whatsoever after a solid week's walking.  

It was worth it.

Thought Wondering of the day:

Whatever happened to all those people who asked me for directions?

It's like my mum always said...

What the hell is wrong with you, Debs???

I feel like I need a life plan.  I want to figure out where I'm going wrong.  Yes, I see you functioning well in this adult world... Me? Oh, well, today I turned on the wrong ring on the hob and cooked nothing for 20 minutes.  So, the diet's going OK, at least.

OK, it's not going that well... I mean, it's probably not great that every time there's a group photo to be taken, I'm handed the camera, right? 😔  So I've been getting some slimming world recipe tips. I struggle with the fact that my curry won't bind with fat free yoghurt. A friend suggested Quark.  So I bought some in Morrisons on Tuesday. And I put it in the fridge.

Yes, it's still there.

I've never used it and I'm not sure how to. Yes, I could google a recipe. But I could also leave the quark in the fridge to go off. It's pretty much 50/50.  OK, I'll go get a recipe now.  I'll let you know how it goes.  Maybe this will be my turning point and I'll become a famous tv chef.  If so, dinner's on me. If not.... fancy a curry?

It's probably best to not pursue fame and fortune. I mean, I like to think that money wouldn't change me, but my behaviour when I'm winning at Monopoly suggests otherwise.

Right,  I've got a quark curry recipe to find....  Got it!