The whole picture: August 2020

What I've done in August

Well, this is awkward. Turns out I may have been premature in reviving this series last month. In this weirdest of years, while July was a fairly lively one and things seemed to be on the up, August has been rather dull by comparison.

On the plus side, the flexible furlough scheme has meant I've done several days of work this month - about half of my usual full time hours, which has kept me occupied, and means my pay packet is larger than it has been since March. 

The highlight of the month was seeing my best friend for the first time since Christmas - the only friend I've met up with since All ThisTM kicked off. We got takeaway milkshakes and had a socially distanced catch-up in Tonbridge Park, with her one year old son playing between us - a lovely afternoon which did my soul good.

I also managed to squeeze in a day of volunteering helping to set up Refuge Ease, the new charity shop opening soon on Tonbridge High Street. My efforts of carrying shop fittings up the high street were rewarded with a chance to go onto the roof of the building (formerly Woolworths) and see Tonbridge from a whole new angle.

And it goes without saying that my August soundtrack has been Taylor Swift's new album, Folklore. It doesn't quite live up to Lover - yet - but ask me again once I've listened 1,000 more times.

Where I've been in August

I haven't had any days out to speak of in August - a combination of not knowing my work schedule until the last minute, and the busyness of the school holidays have meant that visits to castles, gardens, wildlife parks and botanical gardens haven't happened this month. That's not to say I've been stuck indoors, but my excursions have been mainly local, on foot and on my newly-fixed bike, exploring footpaths across fields and the like, finding parts of my local area that I never knew existed.

What I've eaten in August

Despite the Eat Out To Help Out scheme, I've only dined out once this month. Tonbridge Castle launched a new semi-regular cream tea service overlooking in the Castle Lawn, and we booked into the first sitting. On a stifling hot day, we rued the Normans' lack of air conditioning as we tucked into huge scones, served with generous portions of cream and jam, oodles of tea, and cakes too. It sounds like it's going to be a regular thing, so keep an eye on the Tonbridge Castle Twitter account for updates.

Back at home, my baking adventures continue. I've whipped up a couple of batches of cupcakes this month, using my new piping set to decorate them. I also, finally, hopped on the banana bread bandwagon, thanks to the heatwave turning the bananas faster than we could eat them. The banana bread was a roaring success. The blondies (white chocolate brownies) I attempted the following week were less so.

What's next?

I'm hoping to go to Norfolk for a few days in September, for a very welcome change of scenery. Normally we go abroad at this time of year but after being stuck in Fuerteventura when Spain went into lockdown, and with quarantine rules changing daily, it's not worth the risk.

At the time of writing, coronavirus cases are on the increase again, school and universities are due to return in September, and talk of a second wave is very much rife. So once again, it's hard to predict what life will look like by the end of September - we could be closer to returning to new normal, or we could be wending our way towards a new lockdown. Fingers crossed for the former, but all plans are still on hold at the moment.

Follow me on Instagram and Twitter to keep up with my latest (local) adventures.

See also - what I got up to in:

• July 2020: Castles, wildflowers, and a return to blogging.

10 years of blogging

Light the cake candles and bring out the bunting - this blog just hit double figures.

It was 10 years ago today - 24 August 2010 - that I published my first ever post. That was the summer between my first and second years at university, meaning this adventure must have started in my old childhood bedroom in Kent, though my earliest blogging memories are in my cramped second year bedroom in York. 

Since then, this blog has been written in four of my bedrooms in various houses, scrawled on the back of receipt paper during retail work, scribbled in notebooks on the train, and latterly, drafted out in the notes app on my phone.

I started blogging as a career move. Having briefly flirted with the idea of forensic linguistics, then realising there was way too much science involved for my delicate sensibilities, my ambitions switched back to my first love - writing. Journalism seemed the best way to ensure I was writing for a living, so I set about obsessively researching how to become a journalist.

'Start a blog to showcase your writing' was one of the top tips coming up again and again, so willing to do anything that might give me the edge, I eagerly complied. Back then, it was a straight up choice between using Blogger or using Wordpress to launch your blog, and though I can't remember the exact thought process that led me to Blogger, my little space on the internet was born (extra points to any of you who have been here long enough to remember what the original name was - Scribbling Lau as a blog name didn't emerge until a few years later, though it's always been my Twitter handle).

When I started this blog, blogging was completely different to what it is today. It certainly wasn't an 'industry'. Twitter barely existed, Instagram certainly didn't, and follower numbers meant nothing. Bloggers didn't get freebies, and you could forget about making a living from it through sponsored posts and affiliate links. And SEO was non-existent to all but the most tech-focused. It was purely a hobby.

It took me a while to even tell anyone I knew that I had a blog, though it was proudly plastered all over my CV. I was embarrassed to admit I was a blogger, partly due to writer's angst, and the crippling fear of having anyone read my work (if you know, you know), but also because back then, blogging was considered to be a seriously geeky pastime.

That's almost come full circle now - as I wrote a couple of years ago, I'm still often reluctant to admit I have a blog, but these days, it's for different reasons. The blogging, or (ugh) influencer industry is viewed somewhat negatively by those outside it, and often by those within it, and is something I try to separate myself from. 

Over time, the purpose of this blog has changed. The early years were me finding my feet, and experimenting with different types of post to find out what I liked writing - something which probably subconsciously helped me narrow down my career ambitions.

I used to be embarrassed when I look back at old posts. Some of them were written in overly fancy language, because that's what I thought good writing was. Others have terrible images, or don't even have photos at all, something that seems unfathomable to a blogger in 2020. I've considered deleting these historic, sub-standard posts on several occasions, but I've come to enjoy looking back at them, as they show how far I've come, not only in improving my writing and photography skills, but also in narrowing down my interests and passions and - if you'll allow me to indulge in a little Eat Pray Love style waffle - finding out who I am.

At time of writing this post, I've had a full-time journalism job for six and half years, and I'm hoping it'll be there for me to go back to after furlough. So with my original purpose achieved, why am I still blogging? I really love it. Blogging fired up a passion in me to get out and explore new places, be it the latest pop-up shop in London, or a public garden near my house that has eluded me my whole life. That passion is something that now goes beyond blogging and has become a part of me - I love visiting new places, though it's something that's been put on hold this year.

As I said, I've always been writing this blog for me, not for the page views or follower numbers. That said, I do find it really interesting to see which posts have been most popular. I've crunched the numbers, and my most popular blog post ever is... Tiger cubs at London Zoo. Knocked together and published in just a few minutes in back in 2014, I suspect that SEO has played a large part in its popularity, despite the fact that I didn't even know what SEO was back then.

See also:

• What if the only people influencers are influencing are each other?

Wanders with my camera: Powder Mills

Wanders with my Camera is a blog series showcasing some of the photos taken on my walks around my local area in Kent. 

Today's route took me across the fields on public footpaths, beginning at Hawden Farm on the Tonbridge/Hildenborough border, wending through a wheat field, ducking under a railway bridge, following a farm track, and coming out at the small rural hamlet of Powder Mills. 

From here, I wandered uphill, past the former site of the GlaxoSmithKline factory (now a housing estate), and onto the footpath and cycle track leading to Haysden Country Park. At this point I put my camera away, as it's a route I've followed several times in recent weeks, but I branched left at the fork in the track and followed it back to Tonbridge Park, from where I headed back home to North Tonbridge.

If you're keen to get out walking in this area, I highly recommend the excellent Walk Tonbridge website. The first part of my above route follows Route 9: Tales From The Shire, up until that route reaches Hawden Bungalow.  I was born and raised in Hildenborough, so I do intend to complete the full route one day.