A bit about me

I introduced myself back when I started this blog, a year ago now, but that was in my early days, and also – how much the world can change when you go around the sun! I’m a nosy human being and love to know about the people whose words I’m spending my time reading. So, here’s a bit about me.

I’m approaching thirty, and absolutely fine about it. Although it seems unreal that the 2000 New Year’s Eve party my parents held was 20 years ago. I’m also a bit thrown when people I meet are younger than me, so used to being the baby of a group. But actually being 30? I’m cool with that.

Books have always been a huge part of my life. I remember the window ledge in the front room as I was growing up being lined with books, a mixture of my parents and my own. I never really cared what book I was reading as long as there was a book in front of me. Naturally, of course, I had a favourite as a child, and it was a book called Peacock On The Roof. I think I loved it so much as there was a local nature park we went to that had peacocks, and I was always in love with them, thinking it was magical when they displayed their feathers, and if they ever took to the sky it would make my heart soar.

My life is complicated by having multiple health issues, including Addison’s Disease, chronic migraine, and Elhers Danlos Syndrome. There’s more than a dozen in total, and I do my absolute best to make sure that I keep going, keep smiling, and embrace the days when it’s too hard – because sometimes it just is. And that’s okay!

To keep myself going, I do a lot of crochet, and initially blogged about that and my health over on my other blog, which I had for a long time before this came about. I actually started talking about books on my original blog and IG account, and someone suggested I set up a separate blog for it… and here we are.

So along with reading endlessly, I crochet a lot, and also write. I’ve been working on a novel for about six months now, and I’m hoping it will become something. If nothing else, I enjoy writing. I always have. On holidays, I used to ride off on my bike, find a quiet place to sit, and write anything; songs, poems, short stories… I still remember some of them, the ones I poured my very melodramatic heart out into at thirteen. Those were the days.

Aside from these things, I really love Egyptology. I was planning on going to study Egyptology actually in Cairo, and would have done so, if I hadn’t become so ill at sixteen. I still manage to get in a fair amount of learning, and have taught myself an intense amount at home by myself. This, again, is something I’ve loved since I was a child, maybe six years old. And I’ve only carried on learning and loving in the time since.

I use a wheelchair when out and about, combined with a rollerball cane on days when my eyes are particularly bad. I have crutches for small amounts of walking, which I try to get in when my pain isn’t crushing me. The scoliosis of my spine, combined with crumbling joints on my hips, makes walking even a few steps very painful. Sometimes just making a cup of tea at home is too much for my body. I’m not mentioning this to be miserable – it’s just how it is. But it is a part of my life, a fundamental part, really.

I love sunflowers, sewing, cute fabric. My favourite tipple is gin and tonic, with extra gin. I love good coffee, and loose leaf tea. My hair is bright red and quite long, and although I regularly have urges to cut it all off and dye it blue, that will never happen; I’m designed to be a red head. I have separate reading glasses from my ‘general’ glasses, and changing them drives me mad, although the varifocals irritate me far more. Cinnamon belongs on everything, and my usual Starbucks order is a grande caramel macchiato. I don’t have a favourite colour as such, just colours that make me happy. I’m an atheist. My favourite TV show is the US version of The Office; ultimate comfort watching. My Pottermore sorting is Ravenclaw. I love history books, and will get lost in one for hours when I have the chance. I wear Snag Tights whenever I can’t wear pyjamas, and am actually a model on their website; I’m the one in the wheelchair! Body positivity is a huge part of my life, and I have spent my time over the last year really focusing my energy into self love, and helping others feel the same.

Well I think that covers just about everything. I hope this post made you feel like you know me a bit more, or at least laugh at my absurd collection of facts. I’d love to know something about you in the comments!