15 Comments

Diaries, dinghies, writing, and New Zealand. A lot I relate to here. 😊

I'm glad to have found you through Susie https://substack.com/@ahillandi

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Ha! That dinghy photo makes me laugh. I must had spent a lot of my childhood wearing arm bands on the beach. Lovely to meet you, Jo. I take it you’re a Kiwi?

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:-). Yes I am. You can read about me on my About page. Enjoy your day. Although it's probably night where you are? xx

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You're an Otagoan! My dad originally hails from Dunedin. Beautiful, beautiful part of the world.

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I love your enthusiasm for the South. I had never actually heard that term "Otagoan". 😊 I spent my first 25 years by the ocean in the North Island so whilst Wanaka is not where I am from as such, the alps have been home for 20 years.

I'm driving my son down to Dunedin next weekend for his second year at Uni.

I quite enjoy Dunedin. 😊

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Ahh, I’m truly happy to have directed you here to Miranda and her letters Jo... I know you’ll love them all! X

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Thank you, Susie. And sorry it’s taken me so long to acknowledge your comment. Much of the time, Substack just doesn’t tell me when someone’s left a comment.

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“While journalling is an easy-access process we should be easily able to pick up and keep up, it’s the first thing we drop when other priorities take over.” This hits me like a slap in the face Miranda, it really is the first thing that goes by the way... and every time it happens I feel I need to begin all over again...

I wish I had all the old family photos here with me, triggers for memories I know are there but don’t surface without a prompt... one day, I hope one day! X

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Ooof. I know that feeling, Susie. I think it’s because we don’t place importance on journaling the way we do other “self care”. But if we find it a helpful tool, it’s every bit as important as brushing our teeth or any of the absolute basics.

Where are you family photo albums? Are they in someone else’s care? Would it be possible to get duplicates made so you have your own copies? Xx

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They are scattered between my sisters homes back in the UK, there are too many to make copies of all and without actually holding them in my hands impossible to know which I’d like. I will havé to make a trip back again... but as I’ve just mentioned in reply to a Note, time and money are always such a boring and debilitating issue here... one day! 🤞🏽♥️xxx

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Your family pics are so lovely Miranda, what a beautiful time capsule for you to have these. The course sounds awesome too. Congrats my lovely on putting this out into the world, I know it takes guts to do this. Bravo 👏

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Thank you, Lis. ❤️

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Woah! My heroine hides her diary entries exactly because her public diary was under scrutiny!

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Ha! Like Columbus--keeping two ship’s logs to prevent the crew from learning how far they’d travelled and mutinying from fear they’d run out of provisions before they could get back to land.

That option didn’t occur to me as a kid. I wish it had. But I think I was too mutinous to put much effort into one diary, never mind two.

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My heroine has magic going for her, so there is that advantage. That’s what diary keys are for. Supposedly.

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