My First Post-Welcome to my Blog!

So I started a blog today!

Truthfully, I'm not exactly sure where to start except with a little about me.
  
At risk of repeating what I've already said in my bio, my name is James (though my friends have been calling me Gibby since primary school), I'm 23, and I'm currently teaching myself to bake. I would say that my baking skills are somewhat limited, but I love baking regardless. I don't have a particular reason for wanting to improve my skills as a baker other than the fact that baking is a favourite hobby of mine, and it's so incredibly satisfying when a bake goes well.

In actual heaven!

Me! On holiday in North Yorkshire after our trip to Italy was cancelled!

Over a year ago I graduated from Lancaster University with a degree in English Literature and History (although thanks to COVID my graduation ceremony has been postponed until next month, July 2022). Since then, I've not been too sure on what I actually want to do with my life, so I've continued with pub work. Part of the reason I wanted to start a blog was the fact that I missed the writing part of university. Yes deadlines were stressful, but I have to say that composing an argument and working to deadlines provided some much needed structure to my life. 

Mandatory dissertation pic!

Ice skating in first year!

Right back in Welcome (Freshers') Week of first year, one member of teaching staff was giving a talk to all of the students in the English Literature and Creative Writing Faculty. As part of this talk, the lecturer told us to open one of our course books, turn to a random page, and copy out the first full sentence that was on that page. He then told us to spend 10 minutes writing, without stopping to overthink, a short piece of prose using this one sentence as a launch. I remember the sentence from my book was "You worry I will leave you". In total honesty I have no clue which book the sentence was taken from, but I remember the feeling of disappointment when the 10 minutes was up as I didn't want to stop. I remember having written a short piece about a couple trying to recover their failing relationship as a storm raged outside their front door. 

This blog won't be like that, because let's be real that sounds really morbid, but this little exercise alone made me wish I'd taken Creative Writing as a minor subject (the idea of having to read my work out in seminars produced a paralyzing fear though, so I never pursued creative writing further). I'm excited about the fact that I've given myself the opportunity to write in detail about even the most mundane parts of my baking, what went well and what I'd improve in a second attempt (and any other topics that might come up!).

Another reason for wanting to start this blog is that the captions on my baking Instagram, @gibby_bakes, were getting quite long and prose-like (I wanted to say prosy here but apparently that means "dull and without imagination", not what I was going for and probably not the best start to a baking blog!). Starting a blog will hopefully be a fun and creative way to explore my bakes in more detail. 

Working out how Blogger works will be part of the fun, as my IT skills are extremely limited (regardless of what I claim on my CV). I have no solid plans for this blog, but I'm excited to see the direction I take it in nonetheless!

Gibby x

P.S. Referring to myself as Gibby is going to take some getting used to!