I realise I’ve been an absolute slacker on the blog-front. The lure of Instagram got the better of me, with its ease and story function becoming my platform of choice for most of my recent beer-tinged exploits. I’m sorry.

However, I’ve decided to dust off my WordPress and regularly submit articles to this blog. I promise.

Why the break?

There are many reasons that I’ve neglected this blog and the truth is – other things just took centre stage.

I know it’s early on for such a personal admission but after my mum died in 2017 my posts gradually just filtered out. In all honesty keeping up my energy to try and be the best daughter I could be for my dad in the months following – combined with trying to kick ass in my awesome day job (thanks M&B for being so supportive) and working hard to try and make our TEDxLeamingtonSpa ‘Home’ event the best ever – was hard.

Initially writing and organising things kept me sane but after a few months but I guess it all took its toll. I still enjoyed a tipple but any brain space I had left would only allow for some light documentation – hence where Instagram became more of a friend.

Deep stuff I know, but I’d rather be as honest as possible.

Onto the lighter elements of my life… I’m the event director for TEDxLeamingtonSpa which takes lots of my valuable time from between June-November. If you’re familiar with TED talks then you’ll like TEDx events, which are the independently and volunteer run events around the world – you’ll most likely find one in your town or city. Part of this role involves curating an event full of speakers and performers (all under a particular theme), co-ordinated by a team of hardworking volunteers in my town. The talks from this event are then placed on the TEDx YouTube Channel which has 16.9 million subscribers – meaning we have to deliver awesome content to stand out!

Beyond this epic volunteer role, I’ve been travelling quite a bit and one particular trip really took a lot of immense preparation. In November, I trekked Patagonia to raise money for NSPCC and I had to train hard in the lead up to it so I didn’t let the whole group down and so that I could raise as much for such an amazing charity. If you saw my blisters on Instagram you know I worked hard for that sponsorship!

What now?

Well mid-way through 2018 I got to finally attend the Beer Academy ‘How to judge a beer’ session and sit the exam. I wasn’t in the right frame of mind when the date came around to go to the date I originally booked. Massive thanks to the Beer Academy for being so understanding and letting me rearrange.

I’ve now passed all elements of the Beer Academy courses except the coveted Beer Sommelier course and now’s the time to get my arse in gear and book this in.

So now feels like a good time to get into writing again and spreading the love I have for beer onto these pages again. Everywhere I go I’m sniffing out beer and it seems insane that I haven’t shared all these discoveries I’ve made over the last year (and a bit). So from now on, I’m making a consicious effort to keep this content flowing.

I hope you’ll join me on my beer journey in 2019 and beyond.