When Rebecca mentioned that she’d be hosting this “carnival”, I just had to join in.  I get asked this question quite a lot, so it’s a good time to explain.  While I’m at it, it’s Rebecca’s blogoversary today and she’s got a giveaway for this carnival too, so join in!

I started a blog on Livejournal in Jan 2007 as a way to keep friends who live overseas updated with my pregnancy. It was also a late-ish pregnancy journal, and soon I was hooked. I was very surprised at how easily I got hooked, I’ve never ever kept a journal in my life, so this was very foreign to me.

When Connor was born prematurely and ended up in NICU for 16 days, my focus changed. The journal became the only way that people could find out what was going on. I wasn’t able to talk to anyone without crying, so I blogged instead.
And thankfully I did, because I can barely remember all the details, but they’re all here (just look up the NICU tag) for those days when I need to recall some or other detail.

And then as Connor got older, it became a way to detail all his milestones, and show off photos of the boys.
And then, I decided to join a few other moms that I know from a South African online mom’s forum in taking a photo-a-day, and I started my photoblog in June 2007. And that has literally changed my life.

I’ve been taking a photo a day for 13 months now, and I post on this blog (where I vent), and on my photoblog… virtually every day.
This blog started in November 2007, but I imported all the history so that it was in one place.

The reasons I’ve continued with both of the blogs…
1. I discovered that I love photography, and I need recognition, so I post to get some praise and encouragement. LOL, how shallow !
2. I’ve met the most amazing people online, and I enjoy reading blogs more than taking part in forums now. Even though it’s less interaction, I feel you “get” more of the real person than you do on a forum.
3. I need an outlet to vent. I lead a very stressful life, and I need to have me-time, and this forms a big part of the me-time in my life.
4. I forget very quickly, and this is my memory bank of sorts.
5. I now like the 2 seperate blogs. They’re very different, so I think I’m going to keep them seperated. I’m still harping on about having my own domain, but I don’t have the time to do it at the moment, it’ll have to wait a few more weeks.

I have to mention some downfalls of having the blogs though…
1. So many people in my real life read this blog, so I find that I have nothing to talk about when I see some people
2. I’ve lost some friends because of what I’ve written here.
3. Sometimes I worry about the net freaks and the access they have in mine and my childrens lives because of the info and the pics that I post. However, I feel that even without this, there’s more than ample opportunity for a pervert to get info on my life anyway, so what’s the real risk anyway.
4. I wish at times that people at work didn’t know about this blog, so that I could really vent and also blog about something that I’m dying to tell you all about, but it’s not the right place or time because of who actually reads this blog.

… and I’ve run out of things to say. LOL!

It’s bonus and increase time at work at the moment, and most people have received their letters containing the news.

For me, I never expect a bonus or increase anymore, I know how easily it can not be given.  I’ve been burnt in the past.  This time of the year always reminds me of the dark years working at HSBC where every few months more people were retrenched.  It was such an uncertain time.

My most vivid memory is the first increase I got when I worked there.  It was big one, which I was very grateful for and thanked my manager for.  Only to get told a day later, that it was actually a typing error, but it’s OK, because they’re not going to take it back.  WTF??!?!?  Why tell me?  I spent the next few months pondering over what it would have been, and wondering whether I was actually doing a good job.  Stupid people!

I was very thankful for that extra increase the next 2 years though, because that’s when the lean years set in, and no-one got increases or bonuses.  Nothing!  Not a cent!  It’s bad enough when that happens for one year with inflation etc, but 2 years in a row is just DAMN near impossible to manage.

Anyhoo, that’s in the past.  So now.. I just hope for an inflationary increase, and any bonus is just that… a huge bonus!