My introduction :) and hello!!

Hey there... well considering I set up my BlogSpot in June 2010 it’s only taken me 1 year and 4 months to get around to writing in it hehehe.

So... Why now? Well... New beginning’s... That is all I am going to give away for now...!

My name is Kelly aka wok, I am 30 years old, I currently reside in Colchester, Essex with my boyfriend Adam... not for much longer though as I am just about to embark on a 3 month Australian Adventure with Adam! I will come back to this later on though as first I would like to give you some background.

I am Shropshire born and bred and besides a fabulous few years spent down in Devon/Cornwall in my early 20’s the most part of my life has been based in and around Shropshire. My working life has consisted of 10 plus years as a board level executive assistant. You might be thinking eugh why stay in the same job so long, but I have worked for a variety of companies in that time and I have ventured into alternative positions to try life on the other side but in the end I’ve always come back to being an EA, as no other job seems to suit my personality so well, or gives me so much satisfaction. I love the fast paced demanding environment of being an EA... I’d like to say no 2 days are the same but it’s more like no 2 hours are the same. At any one point in time you could be juggling the organisation of 10 different meetings, involving 50 different people, in 7 different venues, while at the same time the phone is ringing, the email is flashing, people are popping by your desk with papers for the directors to sign... and this is all before 9am... it’s just mega!

It takes a certain type of person to be an EA, but then right from an early age I’ve always known I am a bit odd lol.  

Life outside of work is also very varied in terms of hobbies and interests but on the flip side of the crazy life I have a great love of chilling in my own space, cooking, reading, watching movies (of which I have a huge collection). Lazy Sunday’s with Adam are the best; you know the ones where you lounge around on the sofa day all watching rubbish on TV and spending the entire day in your PJ’s... very satisfactory I must say and good for the soul!

So I figure that anyone writing a blog must have reasons and motivations for doing so and I guess that you are probably wondering what mine are. Firstly, I love to write, you can be so expressive and I personally find it far easier to express myself via the written word rather than vocally. Secondly, this last year has been tough and thirdly, as I mentioned right at the start of this blog, it’s about new beginnings.


Why has this last year been tough?

I am, as we all are, affected by the lives of the people around us that we love and care about and for me this last year has seen a lot of illness, death, tragedy and general unhappiness involving the people I hold dear and it all takes a toll no matter how strong you are.

Then from a personal perspective I have been dealing with my own inner demons. I always knew I was a little bit different and thought that quite frankly I may have been wired up wrong. Sometime over a year ago I was put on antidepressants to deal with a condition my doctors thought was premenstrual dysphoric disorder, loopy hormones basically. Anyway as it transpires a year down the line that the diagnosis was completely wrong and my hormones are just fine and dandy (well as much as they can be for a girl lol) and in fact I fit somewhere along the bipolar disorder spectrum and the medication I was taking to combat my supposed hormone issues was in fact making my condition much worse. Between the morbid sadness, hyperactive madness and periods (small as they were lol) of complete normality it’s been an eventful, entertaining and somewhat taxing year and very much so for those around me, dealing with the consequences. I have been living with Adam for over 6 months now and he truly has been my rock, the strains and events are nothing but testament to the strength of our relationship and without making you want to grab a bucket, Adam is wonderful and I love him dearly and I can testify that bipolar is definitely a test of character… and I don't mean mine!!

A few months ago I wasn’t very well and the bipolar was affecting me (not that at this point I knew it was bipolar as the diagnosis has only just been made a month ago) and my memory which in turn was affecting my work and I ended up losing the temporary PA job I had secured when I moved to Colchester 6 months beforehand as I was forgetting things and making mistakes. I had never ever been bad at my job before and it was quite simply soul destroying. With much support and encouragement from Adam, along with my fantastic family and friends I went to see the doctor, who referred me to a specialist, who made a diagnosis and treatment began. 1 month on and I am feeling pretty chipper and well on the road to recovery.

In between being fired and being diagnosed I had landed myself a fantastic new job in London with a great company and this gave me a confidence boost I really needed. However once the diagnosis was made and treatment started I began to struggle again as the medication is pretty powerful stuff, so I made the choice to give up my job and have spent a few weeks letting the medication do its thing. It was over this period that Adam and I decided to embark on our Australian Adventure!! So there we have it… the new beginnings!

It all feels a little bit like a personal victory to me as there really is life after mental illness lol. I know there is still such taboo surrounding the subject and it’s totally unsolicited and only down to a lack of education.

My blog is not about the bipolar though, just some of the motivation behind it.

We are now counting down the days until we go (11 more sleeps) and I am going to be blogging you running up to our departure, about all the preparation and exciting things happening before we go and then I will be religiously blogging while I’m away about all the exciting things going on! Yippee I can’t wait!!

Over and out for now… the first instalment of the days in the life of a fruit loop hehehe