Turning the Puppy Power up, a Remastered Introduction

Hello Steemians,

I’m going to try this introducing yourself thing again, but just a little bit different this time.

My first post, Announcing my Engagement in Cryptocurrency, sunk to the bottom of the steemit ocean within seconds, without much luck. I’m hoping this one might float on the surface for just a little bit longer. If it shimmers there long enough, it may even get picked up by a whale or something uncanny like that, who knows?. Some may say, it’s a cheap trick sticking a picture of our puppy ‘Roxanne Jelly’ in there. What can I say, it’s the scientist in me, just a little experiment.

Ooh the pressure of an introduction! Let’s start with my name, its Olive and as my username suggests, I am indeed an Irish ladybird, who is now living in the UK. I love this time of year, as it carries with it so much giddy hope and uncertain possibility. I am honestly so excited about Steemit, I love what it stands for and it has come to me at just the right time. 2017 was a rather rubbish year for me and my family, and I really enjoyed sticking my two fingers up at it on new years’ eve. Having quit my job as a scientist several months ago, I have come to somewhat of a crossroads in my life. I know I need to do something totally different for me and my family, and I feel that Steemit may have a part to play in this.

I am excited about a lot of things in 2018. You see I have just got engaged to my love Julian, on Christmas Eve to be exact. We met on an internet dating website 6 years ago after many many hilariously disastrous dates, and we are now 2 kids older. His proposal wasn’t entirely a surprise, as he had asked me just a month before this on his deathbed. I just thought this was imminent mortality talking and didn’t think any more of it, having more pressing things on my mind at the time, as you can imagine. Now I have always been a bit of a commitment-phobe, and never really saw the need for marriage. This probably has something to do with the Catholic rebel in me. However, when you come face to face with your love slipping away from you, minutes from his death, it kind of kicks any ideal's you may have had deep in the gut. Making me quickly realise there really isn’t anything else I’d rather do than to be with this man for the rest of our lives.

Pollensa, Majorca, 2017

Actually, it was Julian who introduced me to Steemit. You see, he is an entrepreneur, which is largely the reason he was on his deathbed in the first place. He has had a lot of different businesses in his life, 9 to be exact. Verging from almost successful to not so successful, bless him, but he never gives up and that is why I love him. You see after two heart attacks in November, one minor and one major, he has come to the existential realisation that he needs to retire as soon as possible. Now rather than kicking back, he has decided to start up yet another new business, much to my concern. Believing that his current tech business meracdoone.com won't get him there as quickly as he would like. Without giving too much away at this early stage, his latest venture is a social media platform which intends to incorporate a cryptocurrency.

As such, we suddenly find ourselves in unfamiliar territory trying to get our heads around blockchains, pre ICO’s and ICO’s. So now I am sitting with him at the kitchen table, laptop to laptop, as the kids are mentally playing catch with the dog in the background. We are trying to find a catchy .com URL that hasn’t already been taken, not an easy task.

You see this new business, whateverthehellwecallit.com has to work because our rent is two weeks overdue and in fact, we don’t have a penny to our names. The reason for our current financial difficulties is an increasing problem that plagues many small businesses, late payments. It is becoming increasingly common for large businesses to delay paying smaller business, and bad payment practices are to blame for thousands of business failures every year in the UK. The week before Julian’s heart attack, his company was owed a small but considerable amount of money, necessary to pay staff salary and keep the business afloat. I can honestly say this was the most stressed I had seen him in a long time.
Realising how very precious life is, we have (perhaps stupidly) decided to get married in Italy with everyone we love there to help us celebrate. Now a wedding in Italy isn’t cheap, especially when you don’t have any money, but we have decided to go for it anyway.

The Dark Hedges (Game of Thrones), Northern Ireland

This story is as much Julian’s as it will be mine. This is our story and I want you to come journey with us through our lives until, I hope, we get married in Italy in May 2019. Follow us as we circumnavigate the unfamiliar waters of a new cryptocurrency tech business and a wedding. I am sure I will give you a dummies guide on the subject of setting up a cryptocurrency business as it evolves. I also hope to gently bounce you back and forth through the stories of our lives and everything else my mind will wander into really.

Now I’m not even sure how this story will end, I really hope it’s a happy one, but I promise to give you a transparent account as it unfolds. As Julian always says “we have to believe we will make it”.

P.S since I first posted this, some of Julian’s invoices have been paid. So we have now managed to pay our rent and buy our engagement ring (as pictured with the puppy), whoop!.