May 2026
Things this month…
Food - I went to my favourite Italian in Portsmouth, Giuseppe’s and wrote my first Eatery review which you can find here.
Food - I tried Nattie’s Jerk in Commercial Road with a friend, fantastic venue and really has those Caribean vibes, great food too! I’ll be going back at some point to write a review of the place.
Music - I pre-ordered It’s Just My Opinion by girli which gave me access to an intimate album launch down at Pie & Vinyl, it was such an experience and you can read about here. The album itself is fantastic and each track is filled with deeper meaning, I really enjoyed it. Additionally I had my first monthly Zoom call with girli and some of the patreons which was really lovely to be a part of, it felt wholesome and community driven.
Outdoors - I went on a group walk to do the Hayling Island Billy Trail which you can read about here.
Photography - I complete my Level 2 Photography course and am now waiting for it to be assessed. I’ll probably do a write up about the whole thing at some point. The six photos for my final portfolio are in the gallery below, otherwise you can access the album on my Flickr Account.
Photography - I’ve updated the website with a drop down menu at the top with my portfolio/projects and my kit list
Rum Club - This month I tried Kraken Dark Caramel and Cornish Sea Salt which you can read about here. Next month I’ll be doing the Kraken Black Cherry and Madagascan Vanilla if you fancy joining me.
Sports - I watched my first Formula 1 live race which was a lot of fun and a huge learning experience!
Sighing Bear Future…
This month I’m changing things up on the website. With the increase in AI scrubbing the internet and building data on all of us, I’m not so comfortable posting so much personal information about my life onto public domain. There are things I enjoy posting such as gigs I’ve been to, trips I go on, places I’ve been, general life events, but all the personal things like what my child has been up to, how they are doing, medical things with me and my family, those I won’t be writing about.
My thoughts going forward are to adopt more of a ‘professional’ approach to the website, but keeping things to my style and who I am, and not going down the route of turning it into a side hustle, which is something that has been weighing on my mind. With how the world is so capitalistic in every approach I’ve found myself falling down that hole of “can I make some money out of this?” which isn’t the idea, this website is meant to be an outlet for me, not a means of making some additional capital. This said, I will continue using affiliate links as, why not, and if it helps towards the cost of paying for Squarespace and the domain name, then that’s always helpful. I guess, in a nutshell it’s deviating from a personal blog to a lifestyle blog.
Social Media…
I’ve been experimenting with different social media platforms to see what works for me. Instagram is one I’ve defaulted to, but since Meta took control it’s all about promoting videos and high influencers. I’ve tried Blue Sky which I liked as it’s like the old Twitter, but it felt off. I tried Threads through Instagram but that’s a horrible platform and I really don’t feel it. I did set up a Facebook page for Sighing Bear which I have gravitated towards being my primary now, it’s familiar and isn’t as restrictive as the other platforms (Here’s The Page). I did discover Lumenira for photography which I’m kind of liking for the photography side of things, but then I remembered Flickr existed so have started uploading my photos to that, here is my Photostream.
Politics…
This month was a political month with the local elections happening across the country. In my area I voted for the Green Party because in the present political climate I feel that they are the only party that are really left leaning and more important, the only party that is safeguarding the LGBTQ+ community. However reform won in my local which is obviously not great, but that’s the will of the community and I’m not going to join the bandwagon of saying horrible things about her. She is now one of the three local councillors in my area and she now has the chance to prove that she is a good one, as long as she is representing the local community then that’s what matters. This said, based on one of the other local councillors being in Reform who I have never seen or heard from, I’m not the most optimistic…
We also had the Unite the Kingdom March up in London this month which I didn’t pay much attention to, however the social media of it was all over the place and the amount of AI generated images being pumped up was insane. It’s amazing how many people fall for what’s generated and how images from events in other parts of the world are used to advertise another agenda. AI is an issue, social media is an issue, but people blindly believing what they see on the internet is a massive issue.
Additionally the Draft Code was released by Parlaiment regarding trans people, I wrote to my MP urging her to challenge it. It’s the first time I’ve done something like this and since the Supreme Court Ruling I have been finding myself more politically driven.
