As I was trying to improve my ‘About’ page, I got thinking about myself and events that had marked my life. Time for a bit of introspection!
When I was born, life was orange and brown.
At 7 months, I was already into dressing up.
At 8 months, I was a messy eater.
At 9 months, I started walking.
At 10 months, my ears got pierced.
At 13 months, I had a go at skiing for the first time.
At 15 months, I was a flower girl.
At 18 months, I was fully potty trained and went on my first camping holiday.
At 2, I started nursery school.
At 3, my mum and I moved into the house where I grew up.
At 4 I got my first ‘job’ grape-picking and was paid 5 francs per basket.
At 5, I loved pretending I was a teacher.
At 6, I had chicken pox.
At 7, I learnt to swim.
At 8, I went on a plane for the first time.
At 9, my brother was born.
At 10, I skied down a black slope for the first time.
At 11, I started learning English.
At 12, I discovered Queen. I have loved rock music since then.
At 13, I spent a week in London with my mum.
At 14, I spent a week in an English family near Portsmouth and was puzzled by the food, the shower I could not turn on, the toilet in the bathroom.
At 15, my second brother was born, followed by our baby brother a year later.
At 16, I tried windsurfing. Let’s never speak of that again.
At 17, I was banned from yoga class and went to my first concert.
At 18, I checked my Bac results (A-Levels) on the Minitel. With my driver’s licence in hand, I started working odd shifts in a drugs factory and drove all the way to the Alps in my mum’s Ford Escort.
At 19, I moved to Paris to study English and bought my first mobile phone.
At 20, I worked as a nanny after a short-lived career in a greasy fast-food.
At 21, I moved to London after graduating and became a language assistant.
At 22, I studied French as a Foreign Language in Aix-en-Provence.
At 23, PGCE certificate in hand, I became a teacher.
At 24, I went on a 6,000 kilometre road trip around Europe. I realised that chasing thunderstorms, sleeping in the car and taking showers on the beach were not my idea of a holiday. My then boyfriend (now husband, would you believe it), loved every minute of it.
At 25, I went to Glastonbury. My dad passed away just before Christmas that year.
At 26, I got married.
At 27, I bought my second-hand Mini Cooper. After my niece’s lively fourth birthday party, I declared I was not ready for children just yet. Not long after, I realised I was pregnant with Crevette, and I was over the moon!
At 28, I discovered unconditional love after hours of delirium caused by gas and air.
At 29, I bought my much-loved Canon camera.
At 30, I had the most relaxed, pain-free labour you could imagine when Beanie was born.
At 31, I had a fish pedicure and I would not recommend it.
At 32, I had my first stay in hospital ever when four week old Jumpy had Pneumonia. Strangely enough, that cured my fear of hospitals.
At 33, I made macarons again and again and again.
At 34, I gave birth to my fourth baby on the bathroom floor.
At 35, I made croissants for the first time.
Wow… you can remember a lot…. I am intrigued why you got banned from yoga though!!
My friend and I just thought it was ridiculous and we could not stop laughing. It took me ten years to try yoga again after that. I love it now, and I am mature enough not to laugh, even when other people’s bellies rumble (or worse).
Oh, I loved reading this, Mel! Such a great way to share more about you, and your new ‘About Me’ page is fabulous, too. Thanks for sharing with #WotW x
Thanks Jocelyn. You really gave me the motivation to improve my ‘About Me’ page. It just took me months to actually finish it!
I loved every minute of reading this post Mel,even brought tears to my eyes.xx Je t’adore. Xx
Moi aussi je t’adore ma belle!
What a beautiful post Mel and I love the way you have looked back over so many little moments in your life and think I will have to do the same as it is such a wonderful way of looking back. Your wedding photo is absolutely beautiful and I love the photo of you and your Dad. I also love your comment about when you were born “life was orange and brown” – yes, that was true for me too!
We all lived in an orange and brown world at the start of the 80s, didn’t we? I would love to read a similar post about you, my lovely. Can’t wait to see you again next month. x
This is a lovely post. I bet it was great looking back, it made me think about how much I know of my early childhood x #WotW
It was really good trying to select only a thing (or two) for each year. I thoroughly enjoyed looking at my old photos, too.
What a lot of lovely memories. Why thrown out of yoga class though? That seems rather impossible!
I was just being very unruly!
I don’t think I would be able to find that many pics, and scanning them would take hours. Such dedication but I really enjoyed the post. Visiting from #CountryKids
I scan a few every time I go to my mum’s. I now have hundreds on my laptop. That’s priceless: I love old photos!
A lovely look back over your life, great to see the photos, I love that one of you as a teenager and I loved my try at windsurfing too.
What a brilliant post Mel, made me smile (mostly anyway), lovely idea and thanks for the mention xx
My pleasure sweetie!
Oh I really enjoyed finding out more about you – such interesting facts. I’m mighty impressed you went skiing at 13 months! Love the photos too… I would also not recommend a fish pedi. Horrible experience! #CountryKids
How did these fish pedicures ever get popular? They are truly awful!
ohhhhhh je n’avais jamais vu de photo de ton papa….
belle rétrospective!xxxx
Merci ma belle. xxx
aww love this post Mel, i popped over from #countrykids and noticed your linking up with #magicmoments tomorrow too 🙂 xx
He he!
J’ai beaucoup aimé Mel ! Décrire toute une vie en quelques lignes j’ai trouve que c’est une exercice difficile en tout cas…Bravo!
J’ai adore écrire ces quelques mots et regarder toutes mes photos. xx
What a lovely post. I’d never have thought you’d be a queen fan!
What did you think I liked? I am curious now…
I was thinking maybe ACDC or The Foofighters
I just tried to get tickets for these two bands, but they are sold out, Tragic!
I know, I saw your cheeky #prrequest on Twitter. I was stumped as to how to answer your question until I spotted that tweet.
He he, if you know anyone who has tickets and is generous enough to give them away, give me a wave!
I loved your post you have had a busy life lol
Hello there, this is so interesting what a lovely idea-you have a much better memory than me! And I love Queen too xxx #magicmoments
Every single person I’ve met who loved Queen was really nice. We should meet! Are you going to any of the blogger events, lovely?
Interesting to see that a French childhood doesn’t look that different to an English one in terms of milestones and things that stand out.
🙂
Lovely to read more about you! We live so much for the moment as parents, it’s good sometimes to remember our lives as a whole as well as the here and now isn’t it.
It is! I really enjoyed thinking back and going through old photos.
I love this! It is fabulous, although my memory is shocking so I don’t think I would get to 37! 🙂 xx
I just used old photos to remember what happened when, he he!
I love this post – I did my PGCE at 23 too, although I don’t teach anymore.
#MagicMoments
What was your subject?
It was Primary so all subjects, but Maths was my specialty.
Love the little ones!
I love this – what a fascinating read. You have had a very interesting life (so far!)
Thanks Afra.
Love this Mel! It must have taken you ages to put this together, but what a great snapshot of your life so far! Love the windsurfing one, I had a go once too and was utterly rubbish, once the sail had got wet I wasn’t strong enough to hold it up, what a weed!! x
Same here… I wasn’t too keen on the jellyfish swimming all around me either! I will not be seen windsurfing again.
This is lovely. I’m not sure I could remember my life events like this but I wish I could!
I scanned loads of family photos recently so that really helped me remember all those little milestones.
Sadly a fire meant I’ve lost most childhood pics. I’ll have to see what my mum still has. It’s good to remember.
Oh no, that is sad. I just love photos. Every time I go back to France, I gather photos and scan a few dozens so they can be shared easily with other family members.
What a lovely post, and such a great idea. I don’t think I could remember enough about my life to do one of these though!
That’s so strange Mel, I thought I had left a comment on this lovely past last week? I remember loving it, and reading about your milestones and agreeing that fish pedis are indeed horrible! x
You might have, my lovely. I have not yet answered all the comments I have had in the past week (naughty, naughty!). x
Not naughty at all! I just thought I was going a bit mad! x
He he!
You totally rock! I can’t believe that you have something for every year of your life. I don’t think I could do that. Fish pedicures…they were a shortlived thing weren’t they?! I guess your comment explains why!
Those fish pedicures are dreadful, seriously. I only did it to prove to myself I could let fish touch me (cannot stand it!), but I ended up with incredibly dry feet for months and months. It took a few pedicures to get my feet to normal.
This is such a great way to share a bit about yourself. I truly enjoyed reading through your milestones. Though the fish pedicure did have me curious–it looks intriguing, but I’m not sure I’m quite brave enough to try. Thank you for such a great post!
Avoid a fish pedicure at all costs: unhygienic, no benefits for your feet, expensive…
What an interesting life you led Mel! We have certain similarities – I went to France for a few years and taught English as a foreign language. I got married at 26 and declared that I was not ready for children (later to discover i was already pregnant!) at 27. Lovely pictures 🙂
Brilliant! Do you still get to speak French regularly? x
Love this! x
Thanks Emma x
Hi Mel, I love knowing more about people. I am so curious! Usually, I look at the Facebook & Linkedin pages & every other info I can get on Internet but your introspection is so much more personal. I feel I now know you a bit more. Thanks for this truly BRILLIANT Blog post!
Alexandra, your comment is so lovely, thank you! It is the first time I have revealed so much about myself, and I think it was time as I have been blogging for just over a year now. x
Love this post, such a fantastic introduction. So sorry to read about your dad Mel …Just wanted to tell you that too, in the midst of all the lovely stuff <3
Thanks honey. His heart attack was so sudden he didn’t even realise what was happening. He was in his garden planting stuff and had a big smile on his face. Better way to go than months and months of suffering, even though he was way, way too young (48).
How fun-I may copy you on this if you do not mind. Thank you for stopping by. Where you raised in France? I love that you made croissants. That is great. I have yet to experiment making croissants. Fish pedicure-no interest too weird for me. Sorry about losing your Dad-I lost my mum last year at 50 1/2-it was difficult. We also lost our cat and almost lost my husband’s mum-it was a horrible year. Why were you banned from yoga-I did not know that was possible. ha ha -I am sure there is a good story.
I grew up in the champagne region, and moved to London when I was 21. I would definitely advise you to stay away from fish pedicures at all costs. Croissants are delicious, but if you have a French bakery nearby, I would stick with that: easier, and you do not see the amount of butter that goes in them! My dad was 48. Life can be so short; we really have to make the most of it. As for yoga, I was young and stupid, and I could not stop laughing when everyone was trying to focus and relax…
What a beautiful life you have lead and so cute too right from the very start. Lovely post. Thank you so much for linking up to Share With Me #sharewithme
It has been pretty good so far I have to say!
Oh what a fantastic post! You were a very early walker. Beautiful photos 🙂 x x x
I was! I cannot imagine my little Wriggly walking now! She has just started crawling and she is too cute for words!
Oh I just love this! What a fantastic ‘ramble’ through your past and a brilliant way to capture it all. Lovely xx