Phoenix... and I don't mean the Snow one

Today marks a special anniversary. Not once but twice. Both, unfortunately, negative in nature. 


However, I digress...Number 1 question from January 2018 to October 2019 = Why are you not blogging anymore?!  I would often answer: "Nobody reads my blog, I don't have any added value, there's plenty of other blogs that have way more to say than mine, etc..."  The reality though was everything around me had come crashing down and being "whiskylassie" was the last thing I wanted or needed to do.


Quietly I moved through the motions of what ever this thing called life... is. It took lots of smiling on the outside but also closing the doors sometimes and focusing on what was really important - simply surviving the next 5 minutes or the next three hours or the next day. I lost people that I truly loved in my life, some to death and some due to divorce. I changed jobs (Stressful when you are on the back nine and see the retirement goal post on the horizon). I relinquished things I thought I needed in my life: Car, house, boat, etc...  And all I could say for the better part of that first six months of chaos was: Here I am starting all over again. FUCK was a word I had come to use as easily and likely more often then spoon or toothbrush.


But as with all descents into the darkness we all go through as humans, so exists the flip side of the sine wave. Grand daughter arrived, my "own" boat materialized, friends I didn't realize I had were not only my safety net but became family to me. The job change ended up being the best thing for my career and in hindsight so was the divorce. Slowly the scars, the hurt, the stupidity and the need to close that door and swear until the air was blue simply faded away. I have a new "puzzle" to put together and instead of fearing the fact that I have no idea what the fuck is going on most days, I embrace the joy of the unknown and have learned to simply "b". Then one day, I think it was October 11th 2019 - when I found myself getting back in the car after touring the Waterford Distillery in Ireland, I felt giddy and inspired. As I started to make my way back to my hotel room I suddenly found myself writing an article in my head as I drove. I literally stopped the car on the side of the road for a moment and cried. Whiskylassie may have been going through the motions, hosting classes and attending festivals but again - SMILES EVERYONE SMILES!!!! (For those of you too young to get that - Google Fantasy Island). For the first time in almost two years, I felt lassie'ish…  Coquette in nature, yet somewhat ready to write about whisky once again. Wow... and about time.


So let's start with the basics shall we:  What the hell have I been doing? LOTS...  WARNING: I have developed a taste for GIN (My apologies to all whisky enthusiasts who may be highly offended by that statement). I also love rum apparently -> See what happens if left to my own devices?! My boyfriend (yes I have a boyfriend now - but from here on end he will be referred to as "the boy" - FYI. However... my first love is still - ALL things whisky.

Life has been good. It's taken me awhile to feel a sense of normalcy, to feel like I belong again. It's sort of like being the awkward kid that moved away but then came back and everyone says Hi but... it's awkward regardless. So here I am, just a girl, errr I mean woman... errr I mean lassie looking to start writing again just for the fun of writing whisky stuff.  Will it be read - who knows.  Will it be classical disaster chick meets shenanigans meets life as a whisky person - oh hell ya!  Do me a huge favour though don't expect - BORING...  or MARKETING REGURGITATION or SERIOUS - dear God don't expect serious....?!  Read the whisky bible if you are looking for serious ;)

I'm back, that's all that matters for now. I am making a commitment to write a blog every week for the next 55 weeks.  So sit back, read, giggle, share or comment. Whatever it is you feel like doing once you get "here" is fine with me and wherever you are on your own journey - congrats for making it this far. 
Whisky brought me to this place, it's introduced me to a world of places, friends and of course drams that I could have never imagined. I raise a glass (it's only water mind you but I'm raising a glass none the less) to the next 55 weeks.





HERE



WE




GO!




Lassie