Here in the UK, all COVID restrictions have now been removed. No mask mandate, no free access to tests, no clear methodology for identifying new variants, no requirement to isolate even if you test positive, scant financial support for those who test positive and feel too ill to work, certainly nothing to support those who... Continue Reading →

Let me tell you a little story about me and champagne... When I fell pregnant with my daughter, I was working at an advertising agency in London. No thought was seriously given in those days to not drinking in pregnancy, but restricting my drinking to a glass meant it was always insisted I had the... Continue Reading →

I remember those days of internet dating when one of those ever-present terms was "a good sense of humour" - stated either as a requirement or as a description of self. But the problem is that humour can mean different things to different people. Very different things.... There were those who thought the way to... Continue Reading →

I saw a statistic quoted on Twitter this morning that 11 is the average number of homes lived in during a lifetime. On a quick count up, I'm already at 21, and I know I'm not living in my forever home yet. My family was not military, but we were transferred to a new location... Continue Reading →

"Good memories are like charms... each is special. You collect them one by one, until one day you look back and discover they make a long colourful bracelet.James Patterson, author I happened across this quote the other day, and it brought to mind my mother's charm bracelet. They were quite the thing in her day.... Continue Reading →

I don't Wordle, and neither does Himself, but so many of the people I know are Wordlers (if such a word exists) that my Twitter feed is filled with images of those little coloured squares and, this past week I've noticed it on Facebook too. Before you know it, there'll be an Instagram hashtag for... Continue Reading →

I was inspired to put this together by one of the responses in LA's post, which contained a list of items attributed to Nora Ephron of what she'd miss (and not miss) after her death. Carefully avoiding the clichéd World Peace, or the obvious of a happy and healthy life for those I love, this... Continue Reading →

A short while ago, I read this post entitled If you're a blogger than you're just a show-off and my reaction was huh? As is my wont, that suggestion has been percolating away quietly in my brain until this morning, when I linked it to my mental description of a Twitter person I follow as... Continue Reading →

This post was prompted by two things - most recently by one of the daily prompts being asked by WordPress for #bloganuary, but it's also been knocking around in the back of my mind for a long time. In fact, ever since that discussion I took part in at University about racism and the need... Continue Reading →

I generally undertake a review of the previous year's reading based upon my Goodreads reading challenge report. Most years some sort of pattern emerges: a new author, a new genre.... But 2021's reading was entirely unremarkable, except for one fact - that I finally achieved my aim to complete the entire Booker longlist before the... Continue Reading →