The other day, I said I might go hunting for some simple blog prompts.

Today I’ve realised what a doughnut I am.

This morning, I’m working on my first journaling product in goodness knows how long (this also makes me a doughnut, but that’s a different conversation). And it has just dawned on me…

Writing prompts is what I do.

I mean that literally. I’m writing this while taking a break from trying to fit my “100 Things to Write About for Beginners” onto one page. It cannot be done, but that’s not the point.

The point is I have a literal library of prompts. Yes, they’re journaling prompts. But that’s what this kind of blogging is.

So this is yet another example of things I do for/teach other people but don't use myself.

It makes me wonder how much other stuff I have at my disposal that would make my life easier.

That is all

Prompt: my own creations

Now that 30DBC is over, I feel at a bit of a loss. Well, my to-do list runneth over… but when does it not? So that doesn’t count. I mean, I quite liked writing something here every day.

Also, I’m midway through a 7-day Blogging Consistency streak. And it seems wasteful not to exploit maximise the opportunity to get another MB.

I have signed up for Base Camp (I did this when I signed up for the Fun Run). So, I do have the task to do. But honestly, I’m using the tasks to tighten up a non-fiction book I’ve already started writing. Which I don’t think would be very interesting to read here.

I don’t really want to write much here, necessarily. Maybe I'll find some simple prompts or something.

I was inspired by something Waltz in the Lonesome October said in his post yesterday: he used to pick random snippets out of books and write about them - effectively using the snippets as writing prompts. I’m paraphrasing obviously… this may not have been exactly what he did. But it sounded fun and like a great way to play with words.

Maybe I’ll give it a go. Maybe it’ll be the worst thing I ever try to do. Does it matter? Not really.

The problem is that the book within reach right now is very dark. So I’ll have to be careful where my eyes land and what I select. Let’s see…

“The house is on the market. I’ve already gotten an offer. The cars are gone. I sold them.”
“That’s convenient. And suspiciously alarming.”

I’ll tell you what is alarming… I had to flick through about 20 pages to find something that I could reasonably quote in this 18+ rated blog. So, if we need a lesson from that mini exercise alone, it is that I need to read more wholesome books. Although, to be fair, I’m only reading it to see how dark is dark. Pretty dark it seems. I’m not even including the author & title out in the open in case some wholesome and innocent passerby looks it up and thinks, "ooo, that looks interesting".

See, this is what happens when you type as you think… things don’t go to plan.

Suspicious Feelings
With doubt in her eyes,
she listened for cries.
The strange feeling
seeps from the ceiling.
The door creaks suspiciously.

Not entirely sure this post idea worked the way I thought it would. But no matter… it filled some time, at least.

Onwards.

As we reach the final day of the 30-Day Blogging Challenge (and I've done far better than I thought), I wanted to look back at some posts from the first time I did this challenge.

The posts I wrote back then are very different. Not necessarily worse (although some are definitely worse), just different. I used to be much more carefree. That’s probably for two reasons: I’m older, and it’s been quite some time since I’ve written stuff just for the hell of writing something. So, I think you can see I’m much more planned out and strategic in my approach. That makes sense, given what I do all day.

Really, I was looking to see whether I’ve changed how I answer prompts, and which kinds of prompts I prefer. This hasn’t changed much. I still pick and choose things from a prompt and twist them until they fit what I actually want to write about. I don’t think I’ve ever felt it necessary to answer a prompt literally if I don’t want to.

Isn’t that the point of a prompt? They are meant to inspire you to write about whatever they make you think about after reading them.

On day 4 of my first ever 30-Day Blogging Challenge, this was the prompt:

You have been transported back in time to 1776 and the founding fathers are asking for your opinion on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights articles that they are proposing for structuring the new government. Which ones would you keep? Which would you remove or change? Why?

Now, obviously, I ain’t American and, whilst I’ve always had opinions, I struggled with whether it was fair for me to voice them. So, for this prompt I wrote a BILL OF RIGHTS acrostic poem. It was a bit rubbish, but it didn’t matter too much because at least I didn’t write “I got nuffin’”… which is probably what I wanted to write.

Interestingly, in the comments of that post, someone called me out for not answering the prompt. But in fact, I did answer the prompt. I just did it in a very subtle way.

The prompts I like least are the ones that ask me to be directly opinionated (unless it is about pizza or other stuff that doesn’t matter). Not because I don’t have opinions; I definitely do. But because I don’t want to get into a debate about things that genuinely affect people’s lives. I don’t want to upset people by thinking I know better than them. Nor do I want to be upset (although that’d be hard to do).

Over the years, I’ve learned that you can be opinionated without being directly opinionated. That way, people who know what you’re talking about can deal with it as they see fit, and the people that don’t can enjoy your post as you intended.

For example, if eligible, I would have voted for the guy from Sigma IX.

See… if you know what that means, you learn what opinions I may have. If you don’t know what that means, you’ve neither gained nor lost.

Honestly? Not where I thought this post was going.

My point is that I mostly like prompts I can take in any direction I want. And yes, that may mean it's dubious whether I’ve answered a prompt or not.

But if a prompt (that seemingly no one else liked either) inspires me to go outside at 8 am, take a photo of a telegraph pole, illustrate said photo, and write about a woman who lives next door that I may or may not like… who’s to say I answered that prompt incorrectly. No one, that’s who, dude. No one.

I think that's why I no longer put the prompts I’m ‘answering’ at the top of my blog posts. I feel more comfortable just writing, rather than looking up at the prompt to see if I’m on point (the chances are I’m not). Same for anyone reading my posts. I’m hoping to entertain with my posts; I don’t want to distract people with something I’m unlikely to be answering directly. If someone wants to see what I was attempting to answer, they can. If not, they are free to assume I’m having a moment where I believe drawers are the meaning of life. It’s their choice.

This blog is exactly 13 years and 3 months old. Not quite an anniversary, but I’ll take it. Before starting this 30DBC, the dates on the posts were:

- One on 15th August 2026*
- 10 posts in September 2024
- One in February 2022
- Last post before I abandoned the blog on 10th August 2016*

*See, I keep banging on about it being 10 years. But it is scarily close.

I’m not going to look, but I’m pretty sure most posts in this blog have used prompts. Which, for someone who doesn’t like being tied to a prompt, is interesting.

I signed up for this 30DBC - days after saying I wasn’t going to commit to anything on WDC - to exercise my creativity muscles and challenge myself to write random crap… rather than always writing for a specific purpose.

If I’m 100% honest, I didn’t expect to complete it. I definitely didn’t expect to be in the top 3 in 3 out of 4 debate contests. I think that’s been a nice little confidence boost that I didn’t think I needed.

So, what now?

Well, I guess there are two options. Either I keep practising writing random crap, OR I’ll see you in 10 years…

Prompts ▶︎​

I know very little about lightning. A few years ago, while I was in the Dominican Republic, lightning struck the beach about 300m from our room. So, I know what it looks and sounds like.

But do you know what else I know looks and sounds like?

Something that hasn’t been struck by lightning.

I’ve told you before that our house backs onto an unused field (I’ll show you a photo in a second). As you look towards that field, to the right, we have a neighbour that Chris calls ‘eccentric’ and ‘harmless’. Those are not the two words I use… to give you a clue, I avoid the woman at all costs.

Our neighbour has a gate that goes directly from her garden on to the field. Sometimes I think she believes this means she owns the field. Technically, she’s been there with a gate for so long that she does have right of access. But that doesn’t mean she has to be a twat about it. She frequently hangs her washing out on a makeshift washing line in the field and then doesn’t take it in for three weeks. Or she’ll let her dogs run around the field unattended, who then climb into our garden and use it as a toilet…

“Oh, the naughty doggies. What are they like?”… like their owner, that’s what they’re like.

Anyway, you get the idea.

About four or five years ago, we had a really bad storm. Normally, where we live, any kind of adverse weather knocks out our electricity. So, we were watching TV while we still could before we, inevitably, lost power for the rest of the evening.

Outside our lounge window - probably less than 4 metres away and always visible from where I sit on the sofa - we have a telegraph pole. So, you know, electric. This is what it looks like:



I glanced at the pole a few times and thought it was looking a bit wonky. I couldn’t be sure, so I shrugged it off… until I absolutely was sure because the wires started hitting each other and sparking. It was about to fall over - thankfully into the field, not into our house.

So, we called the electric company to get them to turn the electricity off. Then we called the neighbours on the left to tell them not to go out. We also asked them to call the neighbour on the right to make sure she didn't go out onto the field.

This last bit was important because two weeks previously we saw her hanging onto her washing line for dear life (which incidentally was tied to the telegraph pole) because, it turned out, she’d drunk two and a half bottles of wine and didn’t know how to get back inside. We didn’t want her to do the same thing with a power cable.

Not long after, the whole thing toppled over, and an army of electricians took up camp in the field for the next 10 hours.

At one point, I saw our nutty neighbour in the field looking like she was directing the workers. Because I’m nosy, I opened the window to see what she was saying. She was indeed directing them, telling them to be careful where they put the new pole because she’d buried her dead cats in the corner of the field.

As I say, it’s not her field. But I think the poor guys thought it was because she’d built herself a little cat cemetery in the corner.

All in all, the pole falling was not ideal, but it was sorted reasonably smoothly. It’s what came after that confused the shit out of me.

A few days later, I saw a neighbour from a few doors down who seemed desperately concerned that Chris and I had had a near-death experience. Confused as to what they thought had happened, I stopped them and asked what they had heard…

They told me that our right-hand neighbour had said that our telegraph pole had been struck by lightning and that she had single-handedly organised the electricity company to get it sorted because Chris and I were in danger.

See the images above to establish whether or not you think I would notice whether the giant bit of wood had been hit by lightning or not.

Strangely, the rumour that we’d been “saved” by our nutty neighbour did not end there.

Earlier this year, there was a village meeting because some big company is trying to get planning permission to build a factory. This would include making changes to the road access to the field we back on to. During this meeting, someone genuinely stood up and started saying:

“When the telegraph pole in X field was hit by lightning…”

Good grief. The pole was never hit by bloody lightning. The wood was so rotten that when some drunken woman hung on to her washing line, she dislodged something, then a bit of wind and rain finished the job.*

*This probably isn’t true either, but it is much funnier.

Prompts ▶︎​

Earlier this year, I discovered that I need reading glasses.

On its own, this fact is neither surprising nor frustrating.

What is surprising (ish) and frustrating is the fact that my reading glasses are backwards. Most reading glasses are plus magnification (i.e. +1.25). But mine are the equivalent of minus magnification (i.e. -1.25) because I need them to balance out my wonky eyes for close-up stuff. So while everyone else can pop on Amazon and buy 200 pairs of reading glasses for £5, I cannot. I have to get actual prescription glasses that cost much more than £5. So far, I have one pair. I know, woe is me, right?

Why is this frustrating? Because I read in multiple places… or rather, I did read in multiple places. My office, the lounge, bed, my car, the garden… You get the idea. Anywhere I came to a stop, I read.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I am grateful I have reading glasses. Before I got them, I had stopped reading altogether because my eyes felt wonky and I couldn’t work out why. So, when I got the prescription, I was delighted to get a really important part of my life back.

Therefore, the frustration comes down to two things: I am lazy and forgetful.

In fairness, as a person I am neither lazy nor forgetful. But when it comes to reading glasses, I am both.

I sit in my office in the morning and think I could do a bit of reading, but then remember where my glasses are and decide to forget it.

All this is to say, I am a huge reader, but I’m currently forgoing it for an easier life.

I just remembered a cheap glasses website and bought myself two pairs. I’ve tried it before, but they didn’t get my normal prescription right. But reading glasses don’t need to be so specific. Plus, they have a 120-day return policy, so I have nothing to lose. Why didn’t I think of this before? Ah, not as smart as you think, are ya, Fran?

A few weeks ago, I did 24 hours of reading. I still need to write up how this went here: The Reading Room (it’s on the to-do list). But I thoroughly enjoyed it. So, the reason I’m not reading much right now has nothing to do with the books I’m choosing to read. It’s purely down to the fact that my eyes are weird.

I know I’ve mentioned somewhere that my house is full of books. I cannot imagine having a house without books. Even though I know we could sell them all and make a fair bit of money, I wouldn’t want to. Chris and I have an unspoken understanding that buying books is acceptable. I do try to buy second-hand books, though, because I just think there’s something nice about pre-read books (as long as the first reader didn't mangle the book and wipe their dirty hands on the pages).

I think you need to own 1000 books to be considered to have a personal library. We crossed that line long ago.

All of these books are lovely. I love having so much variety to choose from for my next read. We have non-fiction, fantasy, crime, thrillers, historical fiction, romance… in fact, I think the only genres we don’t have are westerns and parenting books (unnecessary).

But, all that being said, do you know when it’s not lovely to have all these books to choose from?

When you’re in the biggest reading slump of your life, and it is entirely self-imposed.

Prompts ▶︎​

If someone asked me about my writing achievements (which you are), I would initially say I didn’t have any. But I don’t think that is entirely fair. Although, it's probably fair to say that none of them are very linear achievements. And many of them wouldn’t be considered achievements at all. But that’s the point, right? We all have different definitions of success.

Probably my greatest writing achievements are my two degrees. I was one of those kids who was [unfairly] written off at school because I was incapable of being academic. When I was 21, I blagged my way into university by chatting to two professors and explaining that whilst I was awful at exams, I could write a mean essay. I made my case by leaning into the fact that my chosen degree had no exams; it was all reading, essay-, and report-based. I could read and write extremely well, somehow. So, they gave me a shot. I worked hard and got the highest grade possible in my undergrad, which meant I walked into my post-grad easily and got to study under the top academic in my field.

Whilst I didn’t use either degree until fairly recently, my sense of success here (beyond the grades) came from the confidence and belief it gave me. It meant I no longer felt like a write-off and had evidence that I was indeed a good writer.

Since then, I’ve used my writing skills in various ways.

I’ve had three poems published in an online publication and one other used on a charity Christmas card. I used to enjoy writing poetry, but I stopped altogether when I left WDC. So, these remain my only real creative writing achievements. Needless to say, my poetry skills are incredibly rusty. But I’m hoping I might start trying again.

I have taught myself how to write very good blog posts (not this kind of blogging), many of which get organic traffic years after they are published and each make me bits of money here and there. This achievement is unlikely to be fully recognised by anyone other than myself (and maybe Chris because it means I can buy him decent pizza). But I am proud of the skill.

I’ve also taught myself how to write non-salesy sales emails that also make me money from things I’ve created. I do consider this an achievement because it’s a harder skill to learn than people think. Also, I don’t need to hide under a blanket every time I send an email because they do not scream BUY MY STUFF NOW!

I am about to have a book chapter published in an academic book from Cambridge University Press… ooo that counts as an achievement, right? Especially as all the other authors are Cambridge professors, and we’re just Chris and Fran. Also, this has taken me back to using my degree qualifications, which I did not see coming.

I’ve half written a book about my content creation method for ‘professional bloggers’. It’s all about using jigsaw puzzles. I’ve been sat on it for ages. Maybe I’ll use the rest of the Writing Season to finish it.

More recently, though, I feel like getting to this stage in the 30DBC is quite an achievement. I know I joke about being competitive and watching the scoreboard; really, I just wanted to finish it and make a good account of myself. Unless I screw up the final three days, I think I’ve done that. So, I’m quite proud of that.

Finally, I’m strangely proud that "The Daily Grind of Microaggressions"  has been nominated for two categories in the Quill Awards.

So, yeah… I guess I have writing achievements.

Prompts ▶︎​

Ahh, the traditional 30DBC pizza debate. I say traditional, but I haven’t taken part in the 30DBC in about ten years. So, this may be the first pizza debate in ten years, for all I know. But I’m sure I’ve done at least three pizza debates before.

The difference is that this time I'll define my terms. There may even be diagrams. You may well be inclined to believe that I have too much time on my hands. I do not currently feel in a position to disagree with you on that point.

Defining Our Terms

Pizza (Cambridge Dictionary): a flat, usually round bread that is baked covered with tomato sauce, cheese, and often pieces of vegetables or meat

Pizza (Oxford Dictionary): A savoury dish, consisting of a flat, usually round base of dough, baked with a topping of tomatoes, cheese, and any of various other ingredients, such as meat, anchovies, or olives.

Topping (Cambridge Dictionary): a substance, especially a sauce or pieces of food, that is put on top of other food to give extra flavour and to make it look attractive

Pizza Topping (Collins Dictionary): A pizza topping is any food ingredient placed on top of a pizza base to add flavour, texture, or decoration

Pizza Base (Cambridge Dictionary): a mixture of flour, water, yeast, and oil that is used to make the large circle of flat bread at the bottom of a pizza:

Real Pizza (Waltz in the Lonesome October ): To be a true pizza, it needs to have tomato sauce

A Few Notes on My Final Definition: ▶︎​

What We Learn From Our Definitions

Whew, I know, there are a lot of definitions there. But, for me, they all point to the same things.

Firstly, tomato sauce comes up in many of the definitions associated with pizza. In fact, no other sauces are mentioned when defining pizza (at least not in my research).

Second, sauce can be included when defining a pizza topping.

As a result, we can conclude that as long as we have a flat dough base and tomato sauce, we have the makings of a pizza. What we do beyond this point, in terms of other toppings, is up to individual preferences. However, tomato sauce is clearly a necessity.

What I Believe Should Never Be On A Pizza

To avoid uncertainty, my position is that you can have any toppings you wish on a pizza as long as one of those toppings is tomato sauce, rather than replacing it with another sauce because it feels clever. It's not clever; it breaks the defining rules of what counts as a pizza.

Look, I’ve even made you a little flow chart that very clearly summarises what we have discussed so far:



Chris and I are self-confessed tight arses. So, we are more likely to grab a £3.75 supermarket pizza than a £45 takeaway pizza - it is just simple maths. Lately, whenever Chris goes shopping, he’s got into the habit of picking up the same monstrosity of a “pizza”. Most of what's on it is fine (so fine that I can’t even remember what it is), but it has barbecue sauce instead of tomato sauce.

Now, as you can imagine, I have made my feelings perfectly clear about this. However, I’m a decent human who recognises that she can’t always get her own way; maybe Chris is a big fan. So, I simply use copious amounts of wine to wash down this horrendous “pizza” instead.

Last week, after quite some time of me finding alternative dinner options, we had this “pizza” again. When Chris had finished, he looked at me and said, “It's not my favourite pizza”.

You’re shitting me.

There’s a reason pizza is always made with tomato sauce and not barbecue. The acidity of the tomatoes balances out the heaviness of cheeses and meats, while also adding a tiny bit of sweetness to balance out saltiness. Barbecue, by contrast, just makes everything sickly sweet and basically incorrect.

It’s not just barbecue sauce either. I’m pretty sure we’ve established it is all sauces. But for completeness, I’ll give you another example.

Years ago, I used to order a pizza that said it had garlic sauce. But it was actually just extra garlic in the tomato sauce. It was very nice. Sadly, we moved away, so we couldn’t get it anymore.

Last year, I found a pizza that was described in a similar way. So, I ordered it, feeling very excited. Mistake.

Big mistake.

They massacred the pizza by removing the tomato sauce and replacing it with … *deep breath*… something I can only describe as garlic mayonnaise. Oh god, I can still remember the horrific clagginess. It is not a nice memory.

I already had strong feelings about non-tomato sauce “pizza”. However, from that day forth, I have vowed never to order a “pizza” that claims to do anything remotely clever or quirky with its sauce topping.

Nothing - and I really do mean nothing - other than tomato sauce should ever be used as a sauce topping on a pizza. It goes against all things right in the world of pizza. If someone has the audacity to break the rules and use a sauce that isn't tomato, they'll create something other than a pizza.

Prompts ▶︎​

Chris and I watch a lot of YouTube. Well, mostly Chris; I just get sucked in. And mostly it is his account that is playing.

We have very different accounts.

My YouTube account is mostly books, journaling and stationery.

Chris’s account is filled with scam baiting, true crime, news commentary, and plane/train vloggers…and a lot of random stuff that makes you wonder if the algorithm has simply given up trying to keep up.

Last night, a video came up that I was both interested and disturbed by.

The video is basically about AI being used to create bizarre advice, mostly to sell nonsense products to people who fall for it. There’s more to it than that, but I’m tired. So, you can watch the video if you wish.
For me, this represents my love/hate relationship with the internet and content creation.

I love that it is so easy for anyone to create content about topics that they are interested in and are passionate about. It is what I do, and I have a lot of fun with it (despite what I say). I do also create, sell and promote products. I also love using AI to explore new ideas.

But I, like a great many other people, use my content creation skills for good.

Unfortunately, as we’ve all explored throughout this season of 30DBC, some people do not use their “skills” for good. Even more unfortunate, many people don't know the difference between the two.

I have watched YouTube channels (thanks to Chris) of vloggers who are ex-prisoners. They talk about what they did and how they survived in prison. I genuinely have no problem with these YouTubers because they are clearly reformed and are not using their platforms to incite hate, teach people how to commit crime, or sell ridiculous products that mean nothing. Yes, they are effectively monetising their crimes. But they are no longer committing crimes. So, why shouldn’t they tell their story?

The hate side of my relationship with the internet and content creation comes into play when I see people spewing bullshit in order to exploit others' naiveté and gullibility. Especially when they use REALLY bad AI to do it because they can’t even be bothered to put effort into their cons.

If you’re going to bullshit me, at least put some thought into it.

Prompts ▶︎​

Since one of the things I do is coaching and helping people organise their stuff so they can be more productive, you’d think I’d be all over the whole morning routine thing.

Nope.

If you’ve not worked it out yet, I am not good at actually doing 75% of the shit I teach. I’m good at knowing it, I’m good at teaching it, but I’m not good at doing it.

I’ll give you an example, because I know it sounds weird.

I met my best friend at university, who instantly decided I was the most organised person ever (ha). When we were doing our dissertations (our 10,000-word final project), she got herself in a pickle - notes and books everywhere, which all she did was stare at. So, she asked for my help. I created a masterful plan for her with fully organised notes, a word breakdown, and a timeline.

Whereas I:

- Lived on coffee and Red Bull
- Had 5 bullet points as a plan
- Wrote until 2 am
- Got up at 6 am to go training
- Went back to bed for a bit
- Chilled out all day
- Went training again later
- Had a nap and started writing at 9 pm
- Wrote my ideas down, then read books to make sure those ideas made sense and to make sure I had a reference.

Surprising as it may be, I actually did very well. But my method wouldn’t sell books; the one I gave my friend probably would.

Funnily enough, my habits have changed since then. Obviously. I mean, I don’t need to swim 4000m a day these days. But also I used to be a night owl… I’m definitely not anymore.

I think I held onto the early wake-up times from when I was a swimmer, and ditched the late-night writing escapades. I think it is because of Chris, who is neither a night owl nor a morning person. I swear the guy could just sleep forever.

But once I wake up in the morning, that’s it; I might as well get up. I actually thought about why this is recently, and I think it’s the fact that I’m only ever still when I’m asleep. So, as soon as I’m awake, my muscles think it’s time to dance. It takes so long to try to relax again that I just give up and get out of bed. I also think I need less recovery time because my body is used to using so much energy allllllllll the time.

Anyway, morning routines…

Coffee, obviously.

I do love my mornings and feel really put off if I get up any later than 7:30 am. It does happen, but I don’t like it.

I like mornings because I like alone time. The chances of Chris ever getting up when I do are 0.1%. We also have people that work in our house between 9:30 and 2:30, Monday to Friday. I like them, but they like to chat to me when they first get in. So, I feel like I need a good few hours to myself before I need to deal with people. In an ideal world, I’d never need to deal with people… haha, okay, maybe not never. Maybe like a couple of times a week… quietly. Without detailed rundowns of self-made drama. We do not live in an ideal world.

I often have no idea where my time goes in the mornings. I’m nearly always in my office. Not because I’m necessarily working. Just because I love it and feel like it fuels me somehow.

I nearly always write something. Mostly notes in my pocket notebook. But sometimes I go through spells of journaling for an hour. I actually think if I do these things I do feel more productive… that’s probably why I don’t always do it; why do something that clearly helps? Too easy.

Sometimes I read for an hour.

Sometimes I get distracted by my phone for a whole two hours - this is where we are right now. It does not make me more productive.

In an ideal world, my morning routine would involve:

- Coffee
- Journaling
- Reading
- Music
- Using the exercise bike I told you about
- Actually eating breakfast

But I know that if I wrote any of that down on a habit tracker, I wouldn’t even get my coffee. So, instead, I get up, make coffee, and just see what I’m inspired to do. But I'll happily make you a habit tracker.

Wowzers, I sure have a lot to say about something I don’t do!

Prompts ▶︎​

Technically, I’ve only had one “real job” in my life, and that was one day a week for a year. The rest of the time I’ve just made shit up.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I haven’t worked. If anything, I’ve probably worked harder than I would have done if I’d followed a traditional career path. I just don’t think I’m capable of doing anything traditionally.

I’ve also been very fortunate in my life and made some good decisions when I was younger.

I probably earned one of the highest wages in my late teens/early 20s. Because I already lived by myself at the time, I had a lot of financial awareness, so I saved a lot of it. I then bought my mum’s house (minus my inheritance), then sold it a year later for a tidy profit & bought a cheaper but bigger house.

This is not a brag; it simply explains my relationship with work now.

Basically, I worked my ass off between the ages of 18 and 30. So, now, I don’t have to worry about the 9-5 jobs. Even though I probably average more than a 9-to-5 now. The difference is that I pick and choose what I do.

Every now and then, I look at “real jobs”, thinking I should do something a bit more adult-like. But honestly, nothing in me wants to apply for any of them. Nothing.

I’m not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination. But I do feel rich because I just really enjoy making shit up. I enjoy earning little bits of money from lots of different places. It just makes life more interesting.

(I’m keeping this short today because one of my eyes is being weird. So, I’ve just written this without my glasses… goodness knows what nonsense I’ve written)

Prompts ▶︎​