I have been wanting to start and publish a blog for years now….ok for about 3 years. I wanted to write but thought to myself “I’m not a writer, so why bother…”. I had this constant fear that my blog may be received negatively or people would leave nasty comments…or what if people that didn’t like me use my blog as a topic of discussion for a b!tch session?? Also, I didn’t know exactly what to write about – after a few failed attempts and many saved drafts, I left the blog writing project in the “to do later” pile.
A lot has happened since my first attempt at writing up a blog. I tried to write about the issues that were happening in my life at the time, I typed it, I read it…..and hated it. It was dull, boring and it screamed “wah wah wah”.
Many moons later (18 months to be exact), I fell pregnant and gave birth to my beautiful hairy baby girl in February this year, my husband and I named her Juliet. I realised soon after that as a first time mother, I had to plan where I had to go well in advance, sometimes days in advance (I am big on planning ahead). I tried to avoid going out for too long and tried to time everything so that I did’t have to feed or change her outside my home, this idea only worked a small handful of times and I started only catching up with people in shopping centres so that I could be reassured that parent facilities would be available to me.
Prior to giving birth, going out to restaurants and cafes were easy peasy! Now I had to plan ahead – “Is there room for a pram? Do they have change table facilities?…..a parent’s room??? Are they allowed to give out a bowl of hot water to reheat booby milk???” So much to consider.
Going out for mother’s meetings were even tougher, we need places to cater for a group of women and their prams. A lot of places don’t have the capacity or willing to lose a couple of tables to do this which I can wholeheartedly understand having worked in hospitality for many years.
The next dilemma I had was the quality of coffee. I am not a coffee expert but I would say that I have a love for coffee, not just for the taste but for that addictive caffeine hit. When I was working primarily in hospitality just over a decade ago, I was taught in-house by the house barista and eventually became the barista for a busy cafe in Sydney. This was the stepping stone for my love of espresso coffees. I will probably average at about 3 or 4 lattes per day. Does this make me a coffee aficionado? Well,no, but I am of the view that if I am willing to part with my money every day for coffee, it should be worth it. To make matters worse, I am a soy drinker – yup I am one of those. I can drink regular milk if I really have to but it does come with some minor consequences….if you catch my drift, and if I will be out of the house for a while, it’s better if I stick to the lactose free option. Most soy drinkers I have met will tell you that the best soy milk for espresso coffee is Bonsoy for it’s creamy texture and taste that goes well with coffee. I don’t mind paying the extra 50c to have my soy, but please don’t make me pay that extra for a mediocre coffee made with So Good….please.
Where am I going with all of this? Well, so the muse for my blog finally came to me. I realised that if I googled “child friendly’ or ‘ baby friendly’ cafes, the results weren’t that accurate or the food and coffee weren’t all that exciting. I don’t think that just because I became a mum that I should feel that I am pigeon holed to franchise cafes or establishments that cannot serve up a decent coffee.
A few weeks ago, a friend of mine and I decided that we would cafe hop around Sydney Metro using the Urban List of Sydney’s best cafes as inspiration. Now that my little one is a big bigger and I have become a tad more confident bringing her out with me, I have decided to write about the places we visit and whether it would ideal to bring a baby in a pram etc.
As for previous fears about being judged? I spoke to this wonderful young lady who has been blogging fir quite some time now who offered some words of encouragement. Basically, who cares? If people do not like it, they will just move on. There is a high chance that my blog will just disappear in the blog any way.
So without further ado, welcome to my blog….for real this time.
Just a side note, I type as I think – please excuse the typos and please also just point them out to me. I am not a writer, with experience I am sure I will be able to spot the errors quickly….ok…