Twenty-Tens, I Salute You!
We’re almost there! The end of another decade is upon us, a new one looming around the corner, waiting, preparing.
Catch up with Doomsday Prediction: It’s Coming! and My Sandwich and Me.
With the end in sight I thought it’d be cool to have a look back at the last 10 years of my life.
Twenty-tens, Teens, whatever you wanna be called – I salute you!
The start of a new decade
When I think back on myself a decade ago (thanks Facebook) it all started here:
Deaths of the Decade party | 31 December 2009
I am not proud.
Well, I’m a little proud of the creativity, but certainly, I know it was not in good taste to come to a party as one of the Twin Towers with a plastic plane and chico babies hanging off me.
BUT in my defence, it was a Deaths of the Decade party and if anything, you could say that I was committed.
Moving on, this was also the decade where I sang. A lot.
I was a frequent attendee of The Paddo, a pub in Paddington, Brisbane, where the open mic night on Monday’s was the place to be for me and my musical amigos!
Sweet, beautiful Amber and yours truly | The Paddo, 2010
That’s right, not only am I a lyrical genius, I can also carry a tune. And I carried it a lot. I even recorded a couple of songs that will never see the light of day.
And birthdays, oh the birthdays I celebrated! This is certainly the last decade I will celebrate each and every birthday. From here on in, I think I only get the big ones.
Oh, look who it is!
My Sweetheart, Lindalin | 2011
That’s right, me and Lynds go way back and here we are getting drunk together and accessorising.
Fit Bildo
Would you believe, the Teens were also when I got my fit on.
Mid-decade, I joined a cult, Crossfit, and I enjoyed three or so years of being able to lift heavy boxes with wonderful posture, and generally speaking, just feeling strong af.
I was entering team competitions…
WOD For Harper | 2014
And enjoying the days when I was young, sociable and willing to spend a whole day on a sunny field, doing a sport I loved. Yes, Crossfit is a sport, I don’t care for your opinion, Benjamin.
Ruckus at Ruthless | 2014
Those were some good days and I’m glad there’s so much photo proof because frankly, I don’t know if I would believe it myself.
Travelling Bildo
And boy, did we travel in the 2010’s!
In fact, I almost did all my travelling in the 2010’s.
The Husband and I saw a lot of Asia and Europe in our time. One of our most memorable trips was a wedding in Vietnam where I was the only white person in attendance. People would stop me to take photos.
I even stopped to take photos with this guy.
The Husband and I | Vietnam, 2012
Wait, I feel like I know him.
They all look the same, right?
JOKES! I can be racist, he’s mine.
We also travelled to Malaysia and Taiwan with all our best friends, Buddymooning around the planet and celebrating each others marriages and lives.
The Buddymooners | Tioman Island, 2012
The Buddymooners | Taipei, 2013
Man, what good times we’ve had seeing the world together.
And none more so than my own Buddymoon to Europe where we crossed six or so countries in six or so weeks and ate enough MEAT CHEESE MEAT to last us a lifetime.
But we’ll get to that in a second. Because, first, we have to get married!
The Main Event – Bildo Gets Married!
I mean, this is a story unto itself but let’s just say that I waited for years for the Husband to finally be ready to propose, not that I was mad about it. I broke out in hives over it, but I wasn’t mad or anything.
ANYWAY! He finally did propose and in 2015, we got married.
Me culturally appropriating at our registry wedding | 2015
And then we had our big party a week later, surrounded by all our favourite people!
The Bridal Party of our dreams | 2015
And here I am culturally appropriating Asian clothing again.
To be fair, this was a fucking beautiful dress specially made for my (our) wedding and sent to me from my (his) Vietnamese family – and it had high slits so I could get doooown! They just knew me so well…
Cultural appropriation never looked so good | 2015
A year of planning, a week of getting married, three dresses and one happy bride and groom later, we were married and we were off to our Buddymoon in Europe!
The Buddymooners do Europe | Croatia | 2015
And then, we were ready for our next adventure.
Parenthood!
Then, there were three!
Ahh, the things I used to say before I was a parent! Ha! The judgey thoughts, the “shut that baby up!” comments.
What a dick!
Cause guess what – you can’t shut a baby up. They are rather determined.
And then look at what we made – our first little bundle of determination.
New Daddy | 2016
And pure joy. Loud, sleepless, endless joy.
Then, because we weren’t crazy enough, we went ahead and did it again.
The joy (and noise) doubled. As did our hearts.
My daughters | 2018
The love that I felt when I had my daughters is incomparable to any place I have travelled, any vows I took. It’s incomparable to any feeling in the world I have ever had.
But that doesn’t mean I’d do it again. That shop has firmly shut.
Career Bildo
And lastly, feeling that the work that paid me didn’t fulfill me, I started my sweet little blog, my TBoB!
It’s true, I do | 2018
I’ve had many revamps, I’ve written a ton of stuff, I’ve bared my soul (and more) and I’ve fulfilled a part of me that longed to do something that felt meaningful to me.
A few years after starting my blog, I had the bright idea to start a podcast that will embody all the stuff I like writing about, thinking about, talking about.
So finding my perfect host, Lindalin, together we embarked on a journey (her favourite word) to podcasting land and we are now the proud hosts of Australia’s favourite podcast (so say we), Wine Chats with Bildo and Lindalin!
(Shameless Plug: You can find us on your favourite podcasting app, Spotify and Apple Podcasts and the likes, or you can check out this link.)
2020, coming for ya!
So the Teens saw me quitting my boring government job (sorry not sorry) and in 2020, I’ll be throwing myself into the land of media, creating my own rules as I go along.
Lindalin and I will be starting a YouTube Channel so for those of you who are illiterate or hard of hearing, you will be able to see us next year when we take over your phone and TV screens!
In the next decade, you’ll also be seeing us on The Project, as we endeavour to meet, learn from and eventually become Hamish and Andy – with vaginas.
Yep, this is the dream! | Image Credit: Domain
So much to look forward to in 2020 and I feel success in my bones.
Thank you all for your love and readership and listenership and support…ship.
I have loved entertaining you all and I have been so chuffed with all your positivity and comments like “I had to explain to Miss 5 what a vagina was after your podcast blasted through my car at school pick up!”
I hope to give you much more to explain to your children in the coming decade.
Please be safe during the holidays, and most importantly – remember – don’t be a dick! Choose love.
On that note, adios 2019, adios Twenty-Tens, you’ve been a blast!
See you on the flip side,
B.
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