It’s been quiet round these parts, and I wanted to check in.

I spent the last week-and-a-bit in Hong Kong, as I gave a talk at the Hong Kong Code Conf about accessible design (find resources for the talk on my speaking page). I’m so grateful for the opportunity given by the organisers, and I really enjoyed the experience and appreciated the conversations I had with conference attendees who felt that my talk resonated with them.

I also enjoyed sightseeing Hong Kong. I hadn’t been there for five years, and last time my ex was very well-versed with the language and culture so I more or less followed him around. This time Nick and I explored parts of the city together.

Recently Nick and I saw Hey Geronimo do their first show in well over a year. We’d seen the band at our wedding last year, of course, because they played there. 🙂 But this would have been the first show in a very long time for others. It is, sadly, also the last show in some time, despite the band releasing their new album CONTENT (available on Spotify and Apple Music) a couple of months ago. Their bassist has moved on to pursue his career in academia, and new music is yet to come. We’ll probably see another era of the band in the future. The title of this blog post is from one of the songs on the new album.

I’ve been in much thought about where to take my blog in the new year. I have what I like to quietly call grandiose plans, but let’s be real – your blog evolves and grows with you. And how I’ve grown over the past year to two years has been huge.

This is apt, because on Saturday I’m speaking at DevFest for the second time. I spoke at the 2016 event and was invited back. On Saturday I’ll be delivering a talk similar to the one I spoke about at DDD Sydney – which I also blogged about. And, of course, it’s about blogging, and how your blog grows with you.

After trawling through my posts for this year I realise I don’t write the way I used to. Travel is very much still travel – and I still enjoy writing about that. Fashion Friday is more or less every two weeks, but at the same time still intermittent. I decided to take a short break from Hey Girlfriend! interviews until next year. But I don’t write about my daily life all that much anymore, unless something monumental crops up. Things I never ended up writing about included moving and furnishing our apartment, a few trips and events I attended, and my multiple wardrobe cleanses over the past year.

A big part of the reason I stopped, I think, is that I value a lot of “offline” experiences and treasure the time I spend not writing. I’m a minimalist. I try to live a life of intent. That is why my blog has grown the way it has over the past couple of years.

I don’t know if I’m ready to accept this yet. I accept that it’s happened, but I want to start writing more frequently again. I want to write about the boring mundane shit like I used to. I feel like I’ve said this a handful of times this year. I also have an uncomfortable almost-vomit taste in my mouth because I’m about to make the excuse that I’ve been busy and will do it as soon as things calm down, and I’m also about to say that 2019 and the new year will give me a fresh start, but that is such bullshit. “New year, new me, bitch you’re still the same person”, I say, mocking those who use the new year as an excuse to do something or start something.

Why not start now?

Well.

In fact, by writing this blog post at 10:00pm, deciding to put off polishing my conference talk for a little later…

I actually kind of did.