Adventures of a Cat Lady

It’s that time of year again, where I think where has the year gone? But seriously, where has the year gone? It does feel slightly groundhog’s day-esk. Every year, the first four months feel like the grey, dark, cold and wet and like it will never end. The spring comes and the year still feels iffy but just less dark. You then hit June and wonder how you’ve managed to make it half way through the year. Summer coms to an end and its suddenly October (holiday time) and you’re going into the last quarter of the year. You blink and its December and you’re questioning where the year has gone and what you’ve achieved. Each year following Covid does feel rather…. frazzled.

The year started rocky and remained that way for the first half. It all felt rather chaotic for me. I then decided to take five steps back, reevaluate and understand myself better. This has come with pros and cons. The pros being that Ive prioritised myself, my mental health and have taken a much more laid back approach to many things. I now evaluate things based on how much energy it will take. I’m better at saying no to things that take more energy than they give. The cons being that I reevaluated some friendships and realised that they cost far more energy than they gave. Its never nice to lose friendships, however, its worse to keep them and lie to yourself about the dynamic of the friendship.

However, some things will never change and I did manage my annual trips here and there. Of course, nothing too wild. You’ll always find me on the sun bed soaking up the sun, reading and quite literally ignoring everything and everyone around me. The annual trip to Spain in October, opened my eyes to all the effort/energy I had been putting into group trips and how nice it was to not have to worry about anyone else but myself. It was a great example of where I put in far more energy, than I get out of it.

Earlier this year, I tested quite high for being neurospicy. My response at the time was, ‘yeah, I know’, which made the doctor laugh. I’ve always had habits, tendencies, routines and/or ‘requirements’ that I was very aware of and knew put me very much on the spectrum. Females have traditionally been diagnosed much later than males and are traditionally better at ‘masking’ or covering/over compensating, I do a very good job of masking it at times. Having it confirmed has helped me to understand myself better, which is never a bad thing.

The first time I sky dived in 2020, I realised that I did not have the same experience as others. I didn’t really think much about it, beyond knowing something was different. I’ve done a few other things, where I was left wondering if I had been part of the same experience as others, as they experienced it exceptionally differently than I had. After having my neurospiciness confirmed, I decided to sky dive again to check my theory. I turned out that my theory was correct and thanks to my neurospiciness, my body doesn’t create chemical reactions, that say the ‘normal’ person does. There is a debate as to if this is mental health vs neurodiversity. As with most things mental health vs neurodiversity, there is a fine line between the two and its incredibly difficult to concretely say that its X. Its still all very interesting for me to know and ‘experiment’ with. Psychology has always interested me, even if its my own.

As with my luck, nothing goes without incident. My sky dive was no different. When I arrived at the hangar, I had been told that all jumps were off, as there was a national radio outage. This actually turned out to be a major incident, with a “malfunction” at a data center used by the Dutch Ministry of Defence. It caused widespread IT problems across the Netherlands, with all flights were grounded in the south of the country and even the emergency services were compromised. Luckily, I had went prepared and brought my Kindle. After 4 hours of wondering, waiting and looking at updates, the airport gave the clear to go. It was a nice sky dive and I saw a nice part of the area of Zeeland from above.

The girls. Callie continues to tolerate Penny most days. Penny continues to have enough life for the both of them, big morning energy is a real thing for her. She has also decided that she wants to be a shoulder pirate, whilst cute, having her dig her claws in as she makes the climb, is less than cute. At the end of last year Penny was diagnosed with a stress related heart murmur, which this year we’ve been trying to manage (rather unsuccessfully) but this doesn’t stop her from chasing birds off the balcony and falling 15m into the garden. Callie, Callie prefers the quiet life, which Penny doesn’t always allow her to have. There is a very strong possibility that she has hip dysplasia, which is less than good news. We are now trying to manage pain she may have as a result (she absolutely hates the medicine and this has turned into a daily fight) and will need to monitor her movement going forward. It was absolutely in no way great news at the annual vet visit this year and kind of felt like, “when will the bad news end?”, spoiler alert, it didn’t. The various problems are now problems for 2025.

I realised after doing the Dubai Bar challenge that I’m not a big fan of pistachio, which I can only laugh about now. I would say too much of a good thing but it really wasn’t that good.

Dating, LOL, that’s all I’m willing to say whilst rolling my eyes.

I am very grateful for my friends, I absolutely have to say that. They make me a better person and my stories, life events, and dating seems to keep them rather amused and sometimes even crying with laughter. Its so important that we share our lives and frustrations with each other and memes, we share a LOT of memes.

There is some swearing in the below pictures…

The monthly cocktail club remains and I still quite enjoy it. I’m now preparing for our December pot luck, which I will be hosting. Roughly two days of cooking, it’ll be fun…

I’ve now entered the holiday period where I take time off work and visit various museums and fit in the things that I’ve ‘forgotten’ to during the year, whilst thinking where has the year gone. It’s meant to be relaxing, on days at home, it is and on days out, less so.

It goes without saying, that its been an interesting year, both good and bad. I’m glad that it’s coming to an end. I’m utterly unsure if I’m ready or expect what 2025 will be bring… I wouldn’t like to jinx myself. Maybe I’ll blog some more? Who knows…