A little welcome to my new followers...

The last week or so I have been blessed with a handful of new followers, (Twitter predominately, facebook and insta have both been a bit wanky of late) so I thought I'd add a little welcome and 'thank you' to my blog.

You've joined me at a weird time, as the first handful of posts you likely saw were me in the middle of a personal crisis and true selection of misfortunes. Only some of them of my own making. If you saw that and still followed, thank you! It's usually photos of headstones and me pushing Norma Explores. That said, don't let that put you off either. I do try to make it interesting here, honest.

As a very quick catch up, I love history. Military, domestic; the obscure and the grim. The last four or so years I've been a shopkeeper. Last year I bought a small van to convert into a micro-camper. My second van conversion. My intention to visit places, write about it, make tiktoks (not really active over there anymore) and enjoy my days off like the rest of my history nerds. A few months later I decided I was fed up being a shop keeper. I am not a people person. I was a terrible shopkeeper. It annoyed me when people came in to buy things. If you've ever watched Black Books.... well, Bernard Black was quite professional compared to me. I decided I wanted to travel more, write more and actually live my life. Such as it is.

At Christmas I closed the shop. By February I had cleared my shop and my workshop and put 99% of my belongings into storage. Since then I've launched Norma Explores (Norma is the first van I converted with my boyfriend. For reference, Mac is the van I solo travel in) Socials for Norma Explores were already set up, so the name stuck, even though I spend most of my week in Mac. I know, its confusing.

My ultimate goal is to write a book. My day to day life is being a content creator for Norma Explores. Last month I launched the first issue of the Norma Explores digital magazine and I'm currently working on articles for issue two. It's just me, so sometimes I have to take time off socials to catch up on writing. Sometimes I take time off socials to catch up on existing. I have significant anxiety issues, and part of my life change was allow me more control over my triggers. I'm pleased to say I'm much better now than I ever have been. Some days I can't focus on writing, so I go out on visits. My main problem with all of this is that I find just everything interesting. I'm trying to streamline those interests to save my contents being absolutely chaotic. I've failed miserably so far, so the bar is low going forward.

I do try to include some happy things. Flowers and nature, 'nice' stories from history. Unfortunately, I spend a lot of time in graveyards, so inevitably everyone dies. Usually in some depressing and soul crushing way. I apologize for that. I have a need to tell the stories of these people though, so that's something you will have to get used to. My particular interest is telling the stories of our war dead. Predominantly of the First and Second World Wars. The saddest ones of all are where they died so young they have no life lived before they sacrificed everything. I still share their names and remember them. I appreciate my followers that re-tweet or comment on those posts. Just to get their names out there and in peoples thoughts.

I am not a historian. I am not an author. I do this for my own interest and am by no means an expert in anything, so don't @ me if you don't like the way I present my work. I make no pretence at being a professional. I am someone with an interest that got out of hand. I am fortunate to have a number of good friends who serve or have served in our military, and help me understand some of what I write about from different perspectives.

My main side-track is something called The Jeevar Archive. A collection of photographs I inherited from my Grandfather in 2020. He toured East Anglia in the 1970s and early 1980s taking reference photos for a book he wanted to write himself. He recorded rural life, through pictures of dovecotes, mills, village curiosities, and anything he felt would be lost in a changing world. This collection inspires a lot on my days out, but it has it's own socials under @JeevarArchive if you're interested.

So that's where we are. I spend several days each week on the road in the campervan exploring and a few days sat at a desk trying to do grown up stuff, like actually creating content.

I won't badger you into supporting my Patreon now. If you are curious and interested in supporting this endeavour, all the details are on my shiny new website www.normaexplores.com . Its still under construction, but the important links are there.

I guess I could do an FAQ page, but essentially (based on the usual questions thrown my way in social media DMs) :

Yes, my hair is almost always a mess.

No, I don't smile in pictures. The more its mentioned, the less smiley I become.

No, I'm not married. Nor am I looking to be.

Yes, I do prefer travelling alone.

No, I don't get scared.

Yes, I do eat.

No, I don't want to see your dick. You probably shouldn't be as proud of it as you are.

Yes, my DMs are open, but only to people I follow back.

No, I don't automatically follow everyone back. Its not personal, apart from when it is.

No, I'm not obliged to reply to you, in good time or at all if I don't want to.

No, I don't share my political opinions.

Yes, I do have them.

Again, thank you to everyone that supports me via socials, via Patreon, buys me coffee on Kofi, or re-shares any of my posts. It is all genuinely appreciated and I will try and bring you some interesting adventures in 2024.

Rosie x

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(Go and free sub to my Patreon. I lied. I am going to push it. Soz. It's my job)