A formal closure

An overdue farewell...

It's been over 2 years since I last posted on this blog. The ending was sudden. One moment, I was still painstakingly editing, uploading and reviewing every restaurant that I visited. Then one day, I felt fatigued and I stopped, never to return. It did get a bit tedious towards the end because for one, I was tired of constantly feeling pressured to try new restaurants rather than being a return customer. I was running out of ways to describe things and the writing part started to feel like work. I've always thought that whilst in theory, being a food writer would be my dream job, perhaps having deadlines and pressure to do it would take the shine away. Once there was an element of stress behind needing to get posts up before the experience was out of date, I questioned myself "why am I doing this? This isn't my job".

Now, years later and into a whole new chapter of my life, I return to this blog (briefly) with profound emotion and nostalgia. Through essentially 7 years of consistency and commitment, I'd unwittingly documented a chunk of my own history, and that of the Brisbane dining scene. It's interesting to read back and see page after page of restaurants long gone and be reminded of a significance they once held to me.

My posts can be vaguely sorted into 3 segments:

1. Life as a uni student. I had more or less just moved out of home and discovering my interest in cooking. Masterchef had just debuted and iPhones were still relatively new. Instagram didn't exist and I still communicated with friends via MSN messenger. Although I didn't have a real job, I put all money money towards cooking and eating out.
2. Early working days. I moved to Toowoomba for my first job as a dentist. Work took up most of my weekday life so I didn't have much energy for cooking.
3. Back to Brissie. By now, I had settled into a regular adult life and was living in inner city Brisbane. I still cooked but my food blog was a lot more restaurant focused by this point. I think around now was the peak of my blog popularity too.

Now, since my last published blog post, I've relocated to West Brisbane (ironically, within walking distance of where I lived when I first started this blog; we've come full circle, geographically-speaking at least) and am mum to 2 fur babies and 1 human baby. Opportunities to eat out have diminished (and monetary priorities have changed) and though I still love to cook, it's not always easy with baby in tow. I still love food though and these days, I share my taste experiences via Instagram, so if you're reading this and at all interested, please follow @coralia.eats .

It's time to put this blog to rest. Happy eating, everyone!

Some stats

In this blog, I've written:

• 1002 restaurant review posts (just cracked 1k; YES!)
• 291 home cooking posts