Living with Molly: Here We Go Again!

🎵 Better the Devil You Know – Kylie (https://youtu.be/tto_nmsND_o?si=YFvNyEtl-e2vEAYU)

Apparently blogs are dead. Very 2009.
Very “old t’internet”. Very pre-TikTok, Instagram Reels, Snapchat Stories, and very pre people dancing whilst pointing their phone cameras around instead of embracing the tunes & the dance 🎶

But I say:
LONG LIVE THE BLOG 😂

Seriously though, where else do you put all this stuff? How do you capture a hundred different emotions in a 20-second video clip? How do you explain the context behind a smiling Instagram picture when actually, five minutes earlier, I was crying because my drain leaked, my arm hurt, and I dropped a yoghurt on the floor?

Where are the memories stored?

And journaling? Well, I suppose that’s basically what this is really, just with more northern gal humour, swearing, and discussions about my drains and boobs.

I think what I’m trying to say is this: life is nuanced. One minute you’re laughing. One minute you’re frightened. One minute you’re eating broccoli and protein, thinking: “I must become the healthiest woman alive.”

The next minute you’re sat eating a yummy vanilla slice (thanks Ian and Mary) much to the disdain of the other half, because life’s too bloody short.

That’s why I still love blogging, it can capture it all.

Maybe people don’t always have time to sit and read anymore, but equally, who’s got time to watch 400 tiny videos stitched together either?

At least this way, you can grab a brew in the morning, or a wine at night (or wine with your cornflakes morning or night, no judgement here!) and spend two minutes reading, and work out whether today’s a good day, a bad day, or one of those eventful mixed days.

Kylie Minogue is one of my heroes (remember, I don’t judge you, so please don’t judge me!) and she’s just poured all her ups, downs and in-betweens into a 3 part documentary (imagine a documentary of my life, I’m not sure that would make Dave channel in the middle of the night, let alone Netflix!). Anyway, digressing as ever – she recently revealed that she had cancer for a second time a few years ago, after originally having breast cancer back in 2005. She kept it private whilst she was going through it all, because she felt emotionally drained and like a “shell of a person.”

So now I’ve finally found something in common with me and Kylie. It would have been nicer if the link had been being a great singer or a size 4 (which I’m deffo neither!) rather than bar-steward breast cancer twice, but hey ho, a link’s a link 😆

I completely understand why she kept it quiet, because sometimes you barely have enough emotional energy to cope yourself, never mind explain it to the world. But at the same time, hearing her talk about the recurrence now, made me realise how powerful openness can be too.

Maybe if more people talked about it openly, more of us would understand a little better and know how to support people through it. She’s actually since said that part of her wishes she’d talked about it more openly at the time because of the connection and support it can bring.

Unless you’ve had cancer come back, I don’t think you fully understand the fear of it – the “surely lightning can’t strike twice?” feeling of doom and dread.

Maybe that’s why blogging feels right for me too, like “it’s better the devil you know” – it’s familiar, a place where I can be totally honest and share all the fear, the humour, the anger, and all the messy bits in between.

Cancer coming back is a strange thing really.

The first time you’re terrified of the unknown and the second time you’re fighting with the devil you already know. Somehow that’s both easier and harder all at once.

Not everyone wants to share publicly, and that’s absolutely fine. Kylie has handled hers with incredible dignity and quiet strength. But apparently I process trauma by rambling on the internet to anyone who bothers to read, with questionable humour and questionable playlists!

So no, maybe blogs aren’t trendy anymore.

But neither am I, and I’m still here 🫶🏻