As of today, I’ve been writing this blog for ten years of my life. A crazy thought, because when I first started it, I had a feeling I’d end up abandoning it after a few weeks or months. While I may not update every single day like I used to, I still write at least one thing pretty much every week and, at this point in time, I imagine I always will. Looking back, it’s been a fun ten years.
2011
So, Dalfino made me start a blog. Or, at least, that’s what I titled the first blog post. Dalfino himself says that he merely suggested that I start a blog and didn’t actually make me do anything. I named it Trusty Water Blog, after my Trusty Water Bottle, which was a point of interest for some people. I was in Sixth Form at the time and working as an MDSA, which was a very dangerous job. One time on the way home, I narrowly avoided a wasp. Soon afterwards, I found myself starting an exciting new chapter in life at university and though I did miss my old friends, I was forming strong bonds with the new people I’d met.
2012
The first full year of Trusty Water Blogging. This was the year in which I read my least favourite book – but that aside, it was a nice year. My first year of university came to an end and I did well enough that I wanted to celebrate my results. I even gave advice on how others could celebrate in the same way. Someone commented to me that the homeless people of Bath were dangerous drug addicts, so I took steps to prove them wrong. I had a very nice time seeing Anthony Nanson and Davie Metcalfe perform at the Rondo Theatre in Bath. I bought some finger puppets at a local toy shop and then made a little comic strip using them to cheer up a friend when she was sad. In a significant milestone in my life, I got a yo-yo. What a beautiful day that was – a loving gift from a loving friend.
2013
This year started off very strong, with lots of wacky hijinks and fun memories. Like the time my friend Tulin and I accidentally started a fire when making brownies, or when we got off the bus at the wrong stop and had to walk along the grassy verge of a dual carriageway in the dark and the snow. Sadly, later that year, the two of us had a falling out and I was very sad about it. Back then it seemed really important, but looking back, it lasted only a few months and it’s funny now that it once seemed so important. Later that year, I was asked on a date for the first time – I was quite baffled by the offer and politely declined. During this year I made a new friend, I made no note of it on the blog, but at our first meeting, I did ask if she’d be interested in writing a guest post and so added her on Facebook. Perhaps it was a good thing that I did, because we now live together!
2014
As my time at Bath Spa University came to a close, I found myself growing more wistful and reflective – thinking both of the past and the future. I buried a digital time capsule for my future self. Freshly made up, Tulin and I were back to having good times together again. I came full circle and became an MDSA again after university, just like I was before. It was only a short-term thing, but I had some fun times with the children. Sadly, my next job involved me being tricked into distributing Conservative propaganda. By the end of the year, with many university friends having moved away, I started to feel a bit sad. I had to rely on my own company and yearned for happier times.
2015
I started the year feeling the same as I’d done at the end of 2014. I reflected that my Trusty Water Bottle was my only constant companion and funnily enough, writing about it got me my first proper full-time writing job! Or it helped, anyway, with the interviewer saying they’d read and loved that blog post. During this year, I had an unpleasant interaction with a homeless woman. In quite a milestone for this blog in particular, my friend Liam bought me the domain for www.trustywaterblog.co.uk, which was a very nice gift indeed. I was in a better place at the end of the year than I was at the start.
2016
A new year, a new job and new friends. Working alongside somebody named Sarah, she soon won me over and we became the best of friends – an experience involving chocolates in particular was one catalyst for our friendship. It’s a good thing we made friends, since she later saved my life! During this year, I stopped to reflect on all the benefits keeping a blog had given me, and there was quite a list! Sadly, the job I had at that time was a really rubbish one (only due to the boss I had) so I wrote a blog post about my frustrations, waiting a year before publishing it so that I could avoid getting in trouble. Overall, it was a good year in my life, but a bit of a rubbish one on the world stage, but I tried to stay optimistic.
2017
For the most part, 2017 was a pretty good year. I accidentally went on a date with someone, which was probably pretty awkward for them, but not for me, it was good blog material. This was also the year I got to meet some cast members from The Waltons – that’s pretty darn amazing. I hope I get to meet them again. That was thrilling. This year, I ended up with a fairly boring call centre job. I came up with ways for it to be more fun and also found little things which made it quite rewarding. This was also the year I met a close real world approximation of one of my fiction characters. I was also given serious cause to reconsider my stance on tomatoes. Plus, I wrote a blog post about my local MP, which essentially got me blocked from her Facebook page. It’s probably been my most popular blog post.
2018
I started the year by reflecting on the Top 10 Vegetables of 2017. It’s one of the finest pieces of journalism I’ve ever written. Speaking of food, this was the year that I went to Nando’s by myself and had quite a profound experience there. I was gifted a smiley face ball in a job, which created a nice parallel to a similar experience two years previously. I almost missed a bus, but successfully outran it to the next stop. I also took a moment to reflect on all the unusual people I’d met and blogged about and asked myself the question, where are they now? In many ways, it was a bit of a disjointed year.
2019
How recent 2019 feels. This was the year which contained the biggest gap between blog posts in the history of Trusty Water Blog – and why? Because I finally achieved my dream of moving to Bath. Me and my house friend have a wonderful living arrangement and one night we had a fun time going out and playing good cop, bad cop with a local hoodlum. In this year, I made a collage for International Friendship Day – I’m still very proud of it. It was during this year that I started to find it a bit harder to update my blog three days a week, so I abandoned my regular schedule and just started writing in it whenever I felt like it. It was the right choice.
2020
A year which started off normal, but then a global pandemic happened. I had to stay at home, which was fine, because me and my house friend get on beautifully – not like a house on fire, but a house well built which lasts until the end of the earth. During this time, I witnessed something deeply beautiful, which was nice. Despite not being able to see friends, I still had a very good time hosting a global quiz with a big portion of them over the internet. During this year, I became more unwell than I’d ever been before, I had to go to hospital in a life-threatening condition. In the end I was fine though, so I had a pizza to celebrate. Thanks for saving my life, Sarah and the NHS. (Did you like the foreshadowing in the 2016 section?)
2021 (and beyond)
And now here we are, ten years later. I won’t bother to write a summary of the blog posts from the last five months, but the year is off to a good start. I’m really pleased that I’ve been able to keep writing this blog for a whole decade. It’s a fun and therapeutic experience for me, kind of like keeping a diary, but one which I’m happy to share with the world. I’m glad that I’ve been able to make people laugh, to help people to better understand how I see the world and to share my love and appreciation for the people in my life. Going over my old blog posts to make this has been a very nostalgic experience and I hope I’m still writing here in ten years time.
