Travelling On

earthgirl

Glad you are getting on so well with the cats. How are you finding the blog? Is it doing what you'd hoped? x

Karmacat

I always get on with cats, it has to be said The clue is in my name on here a cat could be snarling at me because I had the temerity to breathe, and I'd still love it :rotfl:

The blog ... no, its not doing what I wanted financially (i.e. its doing nothing at all). But of course I don't put enough into it to make it get anywhere near where I wanted it to be. And getting affiliate links, from anyone except Amazon, was weirdly difficult. I link to news pages, scientists, various forums, government reports, all sorts of things, but what's written on my blog is 100% by me. There are a few quotes here and there, but everything's mine. And some affiliate people (I can't even remember who now) turned me down as an affiliate member because not enough was original content. Duh! But I never chased it up because I was ill - and you've got to chase that sort of thing, it's mad.

If I can manage a 2nd edition of the kindle book, or another book, then the blog gives me a good platform to start advertising. I'd love to write steadily, maybe 4000 words a week. That could be 4 books a year, and that would really work. But my life is more important, once the garden brambles are gone and the bushes planted, once the kitchen is finished and I've restocked it, my focus will be on my life. That's the end of May, taking into account 7 - 10 days away, partly on a caravan holiday, partly to meet up with my brother and sister to bury my mum's ashes. And then, all summer, as long as my plants are watered, I'm going to play, all summer long

Karmacat

I was playing this morning - one of the top items on my very short to do list was to go to a Food and Cities exhibition at the Roca Gallery, run by Zaha Hadid's mob. Utterly, utterly brilliantly amazing, once again I was beaming as I left. The use of insect protein (not for me, I'm still vegetarian) was inspiring - think of a doughnut shaped opaque greenhouse, on every roundabout. And a cupboard the size of a couple of filing trays, producing enough mealworm protein for a couple of portions a week, in a domestic setting. Once I've downloaded my pix and checked them out again, I'll be blathering on again

gallygirl

What was the original reason behind the blog? Is that reason still relevant now? If it was for fun and genuine interest then fine, but if it was to bring in additional income is that really needed now you have your small inheritance? Am I right in thinking that even with a few holidays a year you are still living within your means? Realistically, how much time and effort would you need to put into it every week to develop it in order to earn a very small amount? I've just advised someone to read about investing rather than spend time doing 25p surveys and I think the same might apply here.

I think I know you well enough to realise that you're never going to sit and read a book on investing :rotfl:. But if you spend an hour a week on the blog that time could be spent in more financially profitable pursuits such as opening better paying bank accounts in a more timely fashion .

But if you're doing it for self-fulfilment ignore me . And that exhibition sounds great

Karmacat

Ooh, good questions, Gally! I was thinking about Earthgirl's question again overnight, it's such an important one, and you've opened it up even more, so thank you both

So, about my life: I've retired because of ill health, I have no income and I'm living on savings. I spend around the state pension amount, excluding the big holidays like the two (!!!) cruises last year. Those are about spending even more savings.

I'm spending some inheritance on renovating the kitchen, and I've never done that sort of thing before, it's quite a big deal for me. It's just over £13k. And without wishing to be morbid, that represents what I'm about: stabilising my life so I can enjoy it on my terms, instead of slogging my guts out in one form or another.

And here's the question: what makes me happy, in my below-optimal-health retirement?

Firstly, I've discovered I'm really, really not one of the people that like to plan lots of coffees and lunches out - my sister would do that 5 or 6 times a week if she could, and go out in the evenings too. I wouldn't, even if I had the health and the money. I actually *like* and even *need* to do things on my own, as well as with people.

Secondly, I like having easy edibles growing in my garden. I'm not interested in the vast majority of flowers. I like a few - scabious, grape hyacinth, tulips, nigella, Californian poppy, scabious, wild garlic - but I'm not really bothered about the majority. I like the perennial edibles - rhubarb, sorrel, chives, rosemary, lavender, blackcurrant, all the soft fruits, all of that. I'm planning kale and chard

Thirdly, writing. I love writing, I *need* to write. Hence this post The cat blog, I let that go last summer, I let it lapse. Before I got really ill, the cat blog was meant to support the sale of cat-based designs (not products made by me, but designs printed on other stuff, like T shirts, mousemats etc). Those designs aren't going to happen in that way: I still daydream about it, I enjoy plotting it, but it's not going to bring in an income because I'm not doing it, and I don't have the spare energy to start.

Fourthly, the remaining blog and book, about emergency preparedness. Posting on that has gone down to once a month, though I didn't do anything in February. I've realised that I paid more attention to my garden and my kitchen than to my need to write. And that was necessary, especially over the winter dormant season, it worked well for me. This trip has given me *lots* of blog post material

It doesn't earn anything (affiliate links have "earned" about £2 from Amazon, but they pay a minimum of £25, so ... :rotfl: The book earned enough to pay for the blog for quite a few years - I have a free blog, so I might investigate making the preparedness blog free and killing the existing free one.

I like writing. I love writing. For the blog, I have no idea who my audience is. I know *some* people read it, I see the stats. I know people downloaded my kindle book when it was free, and I know some people paid money for it, in fact recently one person contacted me to say that he read his own copy again and then bought copies for his wife and adult children, so that was great

Yeah, I want to write. Maybe smaller blog posts and more kindle books are the way to go? Books definitely make more money, and smaller blog posts would keep me as a presence in that scene.

I *do* know that I don't want my life to be about slogging: because of my "health", I've started to doubt my own immortality I've even started to doubt I'll reach my mother's age. I don't know. So these are the priorities, in approximately this order:
- clearing the decks (till the end of May this year).
- having experiences I like (always and forever).
- writing (till I don't want to do it any more).

rtandon27

KC - a query for you (and tell me to shush if you think I'm playing devil's advocate)...

Is it really starting over??? Really truly?

...or just that now you are finding yourself in a better place, physically & emotionally, now that you have devoted more time to yourself & what makes YOU happy?

Is life not just about being happy & content, whether that means devoting time to your garden, your 'me' time, or your pc pottering & blogging? If you are here for a day or for a century, being happy with what you have & where you are is the goal?!:D

earthgirl

Wow KC such thought-provoking depth to your writing, what great posts!!

It's wonderful to be in the frame of mind to reset and beat your path forward to where you want to be. I belive it's not just about the 'destination', it's about enjoying the journey.

Glad you have plans to really enjoy yours!

Karmacat

:wave::wave::wave:

rtandon27 wrote: »

KC - a query for you (and tell me to shush if you think I'm playing devil's advocate)...

Is it really starting over??? Really truly?

...or just that now you are finding yourself in a better place, physically & emotionally, now that you have devoted more time to yourself & what makes YOU happy?

Oh! How interesting! That's definitely something I do, I'm liable to think of "starting all over again" rather than "I need to tweak something" :rotfl: Plus, I should say, writing is often about "contentment", not "happiness".

Happiness is super :j:j:j (said with a French accent).

Is life not just about being happy & content, whether that means devoting time to your garden, your 'me' time, or your pc pottering & blogging? If you are here for a day or for a century, being happy with what you have & where you are is the goal?!:D

I confess, I am **terrible** at focussing on the now and I'm not all that good I'm being happy either :whistle:

Okay, that's really something to add to the mix: what makes me happy?
- garden time (that isn't navvying, navvying doesn't make me happy ).
- if I'm at home, getting outside first thing - not just into the garden, a little walk to a nearby open space.
- writing, for sure.
- research trips for the writing make me happy: the trips I've done during this catsitting stay, the trip to my local airport researching plot points for a novel.
- low key city breaks - not the 6 hour mad dash that happens during a cruise, but 4 - 6 days in one place. I love that.
- some holidays themed on interests: I've done astronomy, science fiction and history holidays before now, more would be welcome
- longer holidays, for sure! A winter sun holiday could be added to the mix, I'd be very happy with that!
- people. To see, say 3 times a week, to go on most of my holidays with, to chat to. To have more local acquaintances who share my interests.
- something I mentioned very recently, using my old portable CD player to listen to some hemi-sync tapes. I got as far as charging the batteries
- having *some* music on in the background. Not a huge amount of time, but it helps me get unstuck. I used some SB Amazon vouchers to buy a nice little radio for the kitchen recently. When the kitchen's done, that is!

Yep, RT is right - life isn't about starting over completely, my life is actually expanding into places I want it to be.


Thanks once again for the input that sparked all this

Karmacat

earthgirl wrote: »

Wow KC such thought-provoking depth to your writing, what great posts!!

It's wonderful to be in the frame of mind to reset and beat your path forward to where you want to be. I belive it's not just about the 'destination', it's about enjoying the journey.

Glad you have plans to really enjoy yours!

Thank you honey - it was your original post that got me going :kisses3:

Enjoyment hasn't been my focus for a long, long time, I think it's why I'm blathering about it so much now - really, really necessary for me. And it's still not about expense - very little of that list needs major expense.

Very happy bunny here

gallygirl

What interesting stuff KC :T.
If you do decide you want some winter sun I'd suggest a trip to Andalucia - I know you've been to Spain but not sure where you've been? A trip combining Sevilla, Cordoba and Granada would give you loads of history food and wine and they're all small enough to walk round :T. Maybe not Dec - Feb as it can be cold but November and March are glorious, with real warmth and lots of that big yellow thing .