I’ve realised over the years that the more you rush around & stress over things the more you tread water and get no-where.
I’ve also learnt that you always feel a whole heap better if you politely distance yourself away from those negative people who just like to try to pull you down for no apparent reason other than the fact that it may make themselves feel better – stay with the positive people in your life, you’ll know who they are.
I’m Sam, I live in Cornwall, England, I’m fifty something and never felt better. Like most people, I’ve had many life experiences both good and bad. Many have been happy & exciting, some devastating and some quite boring. Since turning fifty I have now realised it’s time to take a step sideways, maybe step out of that box, in fact just kick that box away, get out of that comfort zone, do those things that others may raise an eyebrow to, and Laugh – a lot.
You’ve only got one shot at this, so live it to the full 🙂
Life’s been a roller coaster just like so many other peoples’ and because of some of my experiences I feel I have grown, having learnt so much along the way.
With a loving family and childhood behind me, a difficult time at school, a strange choice of higher education, one emigration to USA and back again, a surprisingly varied number of jobs, three very different businesses under my belt, along with having two amazing children, horrendous post natal depression, a few close family bereavements, one great marriage and then a sad divorce, along with a long and stressful early menopause, and the second, hopefully last, steady relationship of my life – I can safely say life’s been interesting. But I’ve made it past 50, (which, when I was a kid I thought was ancient!) and I am now happy, busy, fit and active.
My children are now young men who are happy and getting on with their lives, I am a very proud mum. I am very lucky to have been in a loving and happy relationship for many years with a fella called Jon, who never keeps still, always busy doing this and that which in turn keeps me very active. Along with our dogs, Rosie (Border Collie) and Millie Puggly (Pug), we mainly love to walk and cycle, we also snowboard and surf. We have a camper van and enjoy time away in her, (we call her Polly).
Over the years, Jon’s big project was building a broad beam narrow canal boat which we’ve had many an adventure in, including selling our house to live on her for 4 years, you can read about that Here, we got to know some of UK’s northern canals quite well, you can read more about the boats’ beginnings Here.
When I was in my 40’s, myself and Jon learnt to snowboard. This was a total challenge for both of us, which has given us a few great holidays up various snowy mountains, we are now hooked having taken quite a number of trips over to France and Austria and even went on a dream snowboarding holiday to Whistler, Canada in 2017 (I wrote a post about this Here). In 2018 my youngest son went to Fernie, Canada training to be a snowboarding instructor so we just had to take a visit over there again, well it would’ve been rude not to, right? 😉 You can read about that trip to Canada Here. We also, with no excuse this time, went again to Fernie early 2019 and had a very different experience, which you can read Here.
We try to live life to the full doing the things we enjoy; Mountain biking, Walking, Travelling, Snowboarding, tripping about in Polly the Camper van, barging about on the boat and exploring Cornwall.
I hope you follow us in this Blog and of course it would be great to know your thoughts by commenting on the posts…Thanks for reading!
Sam 😃
Great ‘about me’ page, Sam. Good to read about the person behind the blog. I look forward to reading your posts.
Best wishes,
Hugh
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Hugh, that is much appreciated feedback. I am very much a learner to blogging and WordPress so am always appreciative of any feedback or in fact good advice. I shall be going through your past posts in search of help 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you so much for gracing me by following my blog, Sam. I don’t follow back instantly as a general rule, but rules are made to be broken, non? And I am breaking the rule for two reasons – 1) I loved this about page and possibly more importantly 2) you have a pug in your backpack (Millie Pugly is a marvellous name) and that made my heart sing. Consider yourself followed and I very much look forward to the ride alongside 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
Awww hi & thank You for the follow & for your lovely comments. Yes Millie Puggly is a Character & she comes everywhere with us, (well not snowboarding to be honest 😂) I’m going to grab some time to read your stories, your blog looks lovely. Thanks again for visiting & nice to ‘virtually’ meet you 😊
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hi Sam your blog caught my eye, when you said about your move to a canal boat and your love of travel, I started my blog in may, it’s been a long learning curve, and love the interaction on on Instagram and Twitter, but I really am keen to read like minded blogs, and if honest ( same age) people who r going through the lovely ‘M’ word, I feel we should be discussing Menopause, hence my Blog post on it ….http://funnyat50.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/menowhat.html
Look forward to reading more of your exciting adventures
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hi Amanda thank you for your comment and visit to my blog, I’ll be popping over to see yours soon. Hmmmm yes the dreaded M word – I was actually an early ‘M’ sufferer and so have been there seen it, suffered it and now through the other end, although still suffer those attacks of flushing and sweats, although not half as bad. Look forward to reading your posts.
LikeLike
Hi, Samantha – It was a pleasure to meet you at Hugh’s site. I enjoyed your Guest Post and your About Page. I believe we have much in common (50’s, love of travel/adventure/nature/dogs). I have been blogging for less than two years. It has been a very steep but rewarding learning curve. I have just signed up to follow your blog. I look forward to reading more of your posts.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi there 👋 nice to virtually meet you 😊 & thank you for stopping by my blog & following me 😊 will stop by yours too 😊 x
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hi Sam
I found you via Hughs blog, you sound like a fun person, with a great blog, I’d never have known that you are a newbie, it all looks very professional! I am interested in your canal barge, I too live on a boat, at least for the summer months, we have a yacht in Greece and sail round the islands. That was why I started my blog a couple of years ago, to write about our adventures. But now we are back in the UK over the winter and my blog posts aren’t quite so fabulous, haha, and I resort to taking part in writing challenges and photo challenges. I look forward to following you and reading more of your posts.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi there and thank you for the vote of confidence with my blog 🙂 Ahhh Wow a yacht in Greece! Now that’s what Jon would love to do, I bet you have some amazing Summers. I’ll take a look at your blog and look forward to seeing what you’re up to 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Sam, I saw that you followed my blog and came to take a look and I really like what I see! Seems like for many (for you and for me) life begins at 50 (Met my husband at age 49 who got me into windsurfing and SUPing). Looking forward to reading more about you!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Terri, thank you for following my blog too and taking the time to visit. Yes absolutely life is actually great at this time of our lives if we go out there and live life to the full 🙂 Looking forward to following you too x
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Sam – Well this was a lovely discovery for me this morning! Anyone who will hike with their pug on their back is all right with me! Nice to have “met” a new friend in England! I, too, am in the 50s crowd, and you had my attention right off the bat with your statements about positive people! So very true – Funny how the older we get, the smarter we are! I’ll be following your encore voyage closely! ~ Lynn
LikeLiked by 1 person
HaHa Thank you Lynn, yes Millie Puggles goes everywhere with us 🙂 So glad I found your blog too! Yes I agree we do tend to get a little smarter as we get older even though when young we think we know it all HaHa! Thank you for your comment and Follow!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Sam, loved to read you lovely About section, beautifully expressed and written. Yes, you are right in almost everything you have said, age is just a number, doesn’t mean much unless you decide much to crib about it :)….yes, the best way peace can be achieved is to let the negative forces die down on their own…..and getting on with one’s life they way we want…there are lots of positive people around, so life’s good….:)….enjoy and best of luck with your adventures, travels and life.
LikeLike
Thank you so much for such a great comment and feedback. Really appreciate it. Nice to virtually meet you 🙂
LikeLike
Great about me page Sam and thanks very much for following me.. best wishes Sally
LikeLike
Thank you Sally, sorry for the late reply. I look forward to seeing more from your blog 🙂
LikeLike
Thanks Sam.. assume the problem with your blog is now sorted.. It was saying the domain was expired.. will try again now.. Sally
LikeLike
Yes only just sorted it. I had a right panic!! Expired bank card was the problem & the fact that I was in Canada so difficult to contact etc. Phew should be up & running again I hope 🤞
LikeLike
Great as people were looking forward to popping over.. I put a temporary sign up and left the link in place. Glad to hear all sorted.. Just what you need..x
LikeLike
Yes was scary for a while. Thanks 😊
LikeLike
Hello!
I hope you this is ok, but I’ve just written a post on how I would love to see more older women bloggers represented on Pinterest. I have also listed older bloggers I really like and you were one of them. I really hope you don’t mind! Let me know if you want me to change anything. Thanks a million xxx
https://middle-agedwarrior.com/2018/03/18/pinterest-older-women-where-are-you-heres-how-to-get-there/
LikeLike
Hi Sam, Hugh sent me. You have a wonderful About page, and I look forward to reading more of your writing. 🙂
LikeLike
Thank you for stopping by I’ll be popping over to you too 😊
LikeLike
Hi Sam , I have just popped over from Hugh’s what a great about page you have….I have thrown away the box I think…lol and like you was late to blogging but I love it!…I love canal boats my sister lived on one for a number of years and it was beautiful everything scaled down…A lovely way of life 🙂
LikeLike
Hi Carol thanks for stopping by. Haha you’ve thrown away the box, does that mean you’re always out of it?! 😊 yes I love the Boat life, it’s very relaxing, still a lot of work to be done on it, but hope to be tripping off in her soon 😊
LikeLike
Yes it does Sam…Sold up moved to Asia and the rest is history …so much I had never even dreamt about even has been achieved or tried..Enjoy your boat my sister did she was moored at Stenson Bubble in Derbyshire ..Really lovely there 🙂 Thank you for dropping by 🙂
LikeLike
Lovely to hear 😊 you have a beautiful blog 😊
LikeLike
Thank you, Sam for those kind words 🙂
LikeLike
Just discovered your blog – really enjoying it 🙂
LikeLike
Hi there thank you I’ve got so much more to post, but getting round to it is difficult 😊 I’ll take a look at yours too. Thanks for reading 👋
LikeLike
Getting round to posting when life is pressing in on all sides is our challenge!
LikeLike
Absolutely 😊
LikeLike
I love it – being an over 50 something myself. I think with age I have become kinder to myself. Yes to creating the life we want. Looking forward to your journey and maybe picking up some ideas!
LikeLike
That’s great thank you 🙂 I think the idea picking is mutual! 😀
LikeLike
Hi Sam! I love the name of your blog! It caught my eye immediately, being a fellow fiftysomething myself. 🙂 Fifty is definitely not as old as I used to think. It’s nice to meet you!
LikeLike
Thank you yes nice to meet you too 😁👋
LikeLike
I’ll make sure I’ll catch up with your blog. Thanks for visiting the #AroundTheWorld weekly challenge earlier today.
LikeLike
Thank you so much 🙂 I’ll try to offer my photo’s to your #AroundTheWorld challenges hoping they’ll be ok 🙂
LikeLike
Great to meet you, Sam.
I love to laugh a lot too. And I love to run. It is my meditation and it keeps me fit.
My driver in life is always to have fun!
You can discover my own life motto at the bottom of my About page on my blog.
LikeLike
Great to meet you today Lance. I’ll certainly be taking a look at your blog 😊
LikeLike
Hello, just found you after reading Jonno and Joanne’s recent post. I’ve been following them for sometime. Looking forward to reading your posts.
LikeLike
Thank you 😊 I hope you like what you read 😊
LikeLike
Hi Sam,
Nice to meet you here, greetings from a Lancastrian to a Yorkist.
Read your interesting post via hugh’s News and views re nearly giving up blogging.
I have been blogging since end 2017 and my blog is evolving just like me.
My About section did appear at the top of my posts but now seems to have disappeared into my home pages which are not yet categorised. As I have posted on recurring topics & posted photographs perhaps losing my About section is a reminder to do this now.
I look forward to reading your posts.
Take care.
LikeLike
Blogging is certainly a learning curve Margaret. Thank you for reading and nice to meet you 😊
LikeLike
Yes Sam but accommodated life’s learning curves so far so hopefully blogging will be no different. I am enjoying the ride so far 🙂
LikeLike
That’s good to hear 😊
LikeLike
🙂
LikeLike
Nice to meet you Sam!
LikeLike
Hi there, nice to meet you 👍
LikeLike
It sounds to me like you’re already a Canadian at heart 🙂
Congratulations on your engagement. While 2020 has been a stranger-than-strange year, there are many good stories that have come out of the madness. Happy wedding planning!!
LikeLike
Thank you Joanne for the well wishes. I truly believe I must have been a Canadian in a former life 🙂 Yes 2020 has been a strange one and continues to be strange. Thank you for the congratulations and you have reminded me to update my ‘What it’s all about’ page because there have been a few changes lately, mainly the selling of our boat and a move to Cornwall 🙂 I have a lot of catching up to do which includes visiting your blog 🙂
LikeLike