The Wednesday Hodgepodge #63

I hope you are all having a good week. It's Wednesday, which means it's time to join in with the Wednesday Hodgepodge with Joyce who blogs at From This Side of the Pond! Each week there are 6 questions, we answer and then link up. Simple!

1. What's something you enjoy now that your younger self would never have appreciated?

I thought grown-up things were dull, boring when I was younger but now it turns out I love those things and do appreciate them. Sensible shoes, now I am all about comfort over fashion. A quiet night at home in my pyjamas is another one. There was a time when I thought staying in was a bit of a waste of a weekend. Now it feels like a treat! Gardening is something I thought I wouldn’t have the patience for but now I enjoy it. I can’t forget things like matching towels, fresh flowers in the house, and watching documentaries on TV. I enjoy calm, simple things now and younger me would be confused by it all.

2. What was peaceful about today?

I am writing this on Sunday evening after a pretty busy week. Today everything seemed peaceful and like life slowed down a little! There was no alarm clock going off waking me up. I had a long shower and changed into clean PJs for the day, I watched The Sheep Detectives off Amazon Prime, the British Grand Prix, Project Hail Mary and then of course some football. Lots of tea was drunk, I enjoyed some delicious fudge and Stu cooked tea. Everything about today is so calm and relaxed. Nobody really asked anything of me, I didn't have to be anywhere and it was just a lovely day!

3. It's National Blueberry Day (July 8). Will you celebrate? You can have one of the following right now-a slice of blueberry pie, a warm blueberry muffin, or a stack of blueberry pancakes...which do you choose?

This or that-blueberries or raspberries? blueberries or strawberries?

Nope, I am not celebrating. I have never liked blueberries, no matter how I eat them. I've tried them lots of different ways: fresh by themselves, baked into muffins, in pies, on top of pancakes and mixed into yoghurt and every time I end up thinking no, they're not for me. I will always choose raspberries and strawberries over blueberries but strawberries are my favourite berry. I could eat a whole punnet by myself.

4. Do you need a break? From what?

I don't feel like I need a break from anything at the moment, life is pretty good and quite manageable. A break from all the day-to-day chores would be a bonus. There's always another load of washing to do, pots to wash, meals to cook, cleaning to do and my family to keep on track and then the next day doing it all over again. I can't complain though, if I didn't have all those day-to-day chores I think I would get bored. Those jobs give me a routine in my life.

5. What has surprised you most about getting older?

It’s how fast time starts moving! When I was younger, a year felt like a lifetime, birthdays felt miles apart, school terms dragged and it felt like a week had more hours in it. Now I feel like I blink and 6 months have passed but the best surprise has been how I have just stopped caring about the nonsense. I spent so much of the first 25 years of my life worrying about whether people liked me, what people thought of me, what I was wearing and trying to keep everyone happy. Now I am older, I've realised that those things don't matter. If someone doesn’t like me, so what, I’m not everyone’s cup of tea and that’s fine. People are always going to have an opinion of me and that is fine too but sometimes their opinions are wrong. Take my hair, for example. It's bright pink and people assume because of that, I am argumentative, confident and a little bit crazy but that is not true at all. I am probably the opposite of those things. Now I dress for comfort, not approval and I don’t feel the need to impress people and finally, trying to please everyone is exhausting and now I use that energy on things and people that do matter to me.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Going back to question 2. I had a lovely lazy day on Sunday and Stu cooked us pies, mashed potato, carrots and peas and it was so good. I love it when other people cook for me. I am not the worst cook but there’s just something about food when you haven’t made it yourself. It always tastes better, every single time! My dad made us bacon sandwiches on Friday for lunch and it was exactly the same bacon we buy, same bread, same kind of pan, nothing fancy or different at all and it tasted miles better than when I make them. I sat there eating it and really enjoying the fact I didn’t have to do anything to have a meal apart from turn up. I enjoy cooking but I like it more when other people cook for me! hehehe