I guess that happens when big things change in your life. You watch the people you used to know, doing what you used to do, and continuing to do those things while you have it all on pause. You wait for a time when you'll be able to catch up and carry on as before.

Of course, it doesn't really happen. You get a moment to catch up, but it's never long enough to have caught up with everything everyone else was doing in your absence. It's sad, because obviously you end up losing touch with people/activities you used to spend a lot of time on. It's not easy from the other side either - I distinctively remember the feeling of losing friends when things started happening for other people and they weren't around as much, or started having different interests as a result of their new lives.

It's an odd feeling. I'm not sure I like it.

(I don't deal with change too well. Can you tell? :P )

A few people asked if I would do a bit of a review on this whole experience, so here's a quick little FAQ thing:

1. Why did you do it?

   Well, for a few reasons really. The main one being that I've felt like I had nothing to blog about for months - years, even - and I wanted to get back into the swing of things. Did it help? Yes! I had a real problem where I felt held back by what others thought and this allowed me to think past that.

2. What was the hardest part?

   Having something to write about. I had vague ideas every day, but nothing I really felt was worth publishing. I didn't want to post 'filler' so I went through past NaBlo prompt lists for inspiration.

3. Did you cheat and schedule your posts in advance?

   I only did this with a few posts, like if I had a particularly long D-free moment and inspiration for posts and/or if I knew I'd be away the next day. In general though, they were all live.

4. Why was everything posted at 6pm?

   Ah, that'll be my annoying edit-re-edit cycle :P I wrote most posts an hour or so before letting them go live, so I had time to fiddle with them as much as my perfectionism demanded. By 6 I was usually busy doing other things, so the version that was current at that time is the version that went out. Yes, I am weird. :P

5. Will you update more frequently now?

   I'll try ;)

Yep, so there we go! I really enjoyed this challenge and definitely feel more inspired to write now. Hopefully I haven't bored you all too much with all this - maybe you even enjoyed it too :D

...um. Well in all honesty, I haven't really found any - I blogged a bit about this a while ago, but my general thinking is that the novelty of blogging is wearing off while people use social media instead. A few people I've been following a while have opened new sites, but I wouldn't really class those as new blogs per se.

So with that, I thought I'd share 3 new Twitter accounts I found this year:

1. @Queen_UK

   I love this account (though not so much their constant book promotion...), it's a parody of the Queen of England (and all the other countries she might happen to be Queen of) which I find quite funny.

2. @OctoberJones

   If you've ever read Texts from Dog, this is the person who runs that. Love TFD, love this.

3. @BadJokeCat

   ...I'm sorry, I love the odd terrible joke, and this account provides just that.

Yep, so there you go. I'd have gone into more detail and included examples of their tweets and stuff but apparently I am short on time tonight, soooo there's that. :P

This will be D's first holiday, and although it's only to an activity centre place for a few days, I'm really looking forward to it. Can't wait to walk through new areas with him (er, in the cold. Hmmm), can't wait to do the sensory activities that they run, can't wait to take loads of pictures of possibly snowy scenes, can't wait to get away for a while and relax.

Mmm. Anyway, yes, that's not yet. Back to day to day life for now...

If you could instantly know any language in the world, which one would it be?

I guess... All of them? Is that greedy? :P I really feel awkward going to a country where I don't know the language. So far that's only been Germany, but I felt really bad asking people if they spoke English and then not knowing what to do when they said "nein!", heh. If I knew more languages, I'm sure I'd feel more inclined to visit other countries (providing I have the money... Haha).

Failing that, I'd really like to know Spanish. I think it's such a beautiful language :) So far though, I only know hola, donde esta el hombre and hablas Español (all of which may or may not be grammatically incorrect). Not a great start!

I do. Or I did. I was brought up bilingual, learning French from my parents and English from my grandparents. At some point though I stopped actually speaking in French, even though that's the only language my parents have ever used in the house... They'd ask me something in French, I'd reply in English. Over time, I sort of lost the ability to speak French, though I still understand it. That was made worse when I moved out of my parents' house and stopped hearing French around me every day :(

I try and keep things as refreshed as I can by keeping up to date with French news sites, forums and other sites, but I really must do more - how will D be able to learn French from me if I don't speak it to him? :P I really enjoyed having two languages to work with, so to speak, so I'd really like it if he can have that too. Learning from birth is far easier than learning at school... Never did get very far with my German, hah!

...wait, what? SIX MONTHS? How did that happen?

I was looking at a picture of a friend's newborn baby just the other day and it occurred to me then just how huge D is now - he's getting to the point where little old me is starting to struggle lifting him, and feeding him on my lap, where he used to fit quite nicely, sees an adventure with arms and legs that I hadn't even realised was happening until I compared with a picture of him at 6 weeks old.

Soon he'll be ready for weaning, getting mobile and becoming a fully independent little person. I look forward to it, if a little sad that my little man is growing faster than I'd like :P

In some ways, it feels like it was so long ago that I was a different person then... But at the same time it feels like it was only weeks ago. So much has happened that he never got to know about. It's weird thinking that there are a lot of things around now that didn't exist (or weren't very commomn) back then. No Facebook, no Twitter, no flat screen TVs, no GPS, no wifi... Those are just the geeky things that I'm thinking of off the top of my head.

Then of course there's the people who didn't exist then either - I feel so sad that D will never meet "Uncle Nick". I'm sure they'd have got along so well :(

Blah. I try not to dwell on it too much these days... I just didn't really want to let this date go past without acknowledging it, I guess.

1. Switch supermarkets

   I've always done my weekly shop at the local Sainsbury's, because it's just round the corner from me and easy to nip to for a quick shop. I popped into Tesco a few weeks ago and did my weekly shop there instead, and found that I spent £20 less. Since then, I've been going back and forth between the two, and it seems that Tesco is winning at the moment. Last week's shopping was £10 less than the previous week's Sainsbury's offering (despite using loyalty card points).

2. Switch utilities and insurance providers

   I switch home and car insurance providers every year, because providers seem to like to play sneaky games where they penalise existing customers with a hefty price rise and/or change the product so that it's no longer suited to me. I chopped my car insurance in half this year just by going with a different provider. I haven't done this with my utilities yet, but it definitely needs doing - my current provider bumped the price up by 8% starting next month. Noooo thank you!

3. Turn down the heating

   Sounds obvious, but it's not something I've done before. I like my house at a constant 20°C but now that I'm here all day, every day, that's a lot of heating! 18° is a hardly noticeable change and my house tends to naturally stay at that temperature anyway.

4. Cashback

   I signed up for Top CashBack a couple of years ago, but I kept forgetting to actually use it. Earlier this year when buying all the baby supplies for D, I did actually remember to use it and got some nice results out of it. I just need to remember to use it for my Christmas shopping now (she says, having almost completed it and not used TCB... Oopsie)...

5. Make gifts instead of buying them

   This year, I'm planning to make a few of my Christmas gifts. They make for a great personal touch, and save money :) I'd say what I'm planning, but I know my family read this site, so probably not a great idea... It shall be wonderful though (I hope. Heh) :D

(You can't really tell there but he's grabbed her back paw)

...well, I thought it was funny, anyway XD

Obligatory disclaimer: Lucy is a gentle cat who does not scratch, bite or swipe. This picture was taken in a controlled situation and it would not have taken place if I had any suspicion that she would harm D in any way (or vice versa!). Just in case anyone was wondering (which I'm sure you all were. You can sleep soundly tonight now :D ). Does anyone actually read these blurby bits? Who knows. Also, I like cake. Yup.