Dear Link Builders, Please Read This Before You Email Me Again Hi there, If you’ve landed on this post because I just sent you a link in response to your email offering me $20 for a blog post when I’ve clearly stated my rate is $120 — welcome! Sit down, stay a while. Let’s chat. Actually, no — scratch that. Let me save us both some time. I’ve been blogging
Random, as it suggests!
Musings
Surviving Carpal Tunnel Surgery: A One-Handed Guide to Life
I have always considered myself a fairly competent human being. I can cook a meal without setting the kitchen on fire, dress myself without assistance, and maintain basic hygiene—at least, that’s what I thought before I had carpal tunnel surgery. What I failed to realise is that once you take away the use of one hand, the world becomes a far more complicated place. If you, like me, are about
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Musings
February 1st is my new New Year’s Day
Ah, January. The month that drags on forever, filled with cold, grey skies, failed resolutions, and an overwhelming sense that we should be doing better. But what if January isn’t the fresh start we’ve been led to believe? What if, instead of fighting through the gloom, we just accepted that this month is a total write-off and started the new year properly on February 1st? As it turns out, this
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Musings
Finding Comfort After Chaos (AD)
If you follow me on instagram you may have seen me mention that over Christmas last year Mr B’s family home had suffered from water damage to a bedroom after a storm during building works. Not only had water started pouring into the bedroom and kitchen, the ceiling of the bedroom then collapsed on to his mum whilst she was trying to get furniture and other items out of the
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Musings
10 simple Valentine’s at home ideas
Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and love is in the air! While it’s a wonderful time to celebrate your affection for that special someone, it doesn’t have to break the bank or harm the planet. Candlelit dinner Create a romantic atmosphere by preparing a candlelit dinner at home. Cook your partner’s favorite dishes, set a beautifully decorated table, and enjoy an intimate evening without the restaurant price tag.
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Musings
Cote At Home’s Alpine Menu (ad)
During lockdown we had to find ways to celebrate birthdays that took into account the current restrictions. Cote became my go to for birthday celebrations and in fact it was whilst sitting in the garden enjoying a Cote beef wellington on Bruce’s birthday that we got the phone call to say that our first granddaughter had been born. So when I heard in the midst of a dreary January that
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Musings
100 Book Reading Challenges aren’t for me
In a world that seems to be constantly rushing, there’s an ever-increasing trend of reading challenges that encourage individuals to devour books at an astonishing pace. One such challenge that has gained significant popularity is the “read 100 books in a year” challenge. While some people find exhilaration in conquering this challenge, I have a different perspective. I believe that reading should be about more than just numbers, and in
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Musings
Why we need to listen to cabin crew
Five people lost their lives earlier this week when the plane they were on collided with another aircraft on the runway in Japan. Absolutely heartbreaking news. Miraculously all 397 on the Japan Airlines plane survived. How is that even possible? Well much is being made of the design of the aircraft, but an early report I read suggested a lot of it came down to the majority of passengers being
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Musings
Why 2024 needs to be the year of small
I often struggle with whether I need to define a year before it has begun. Should we put that expectation on the following 363 days on day three? Or should we do that at the end of the year, retrospectively? In previous years I have done it by way of a word of the year, such as the year of enough in 2018, or hope. This year I am going
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Musings
A Year of Joy, Challenges, and Resilience: Reflecting on 2023
As we bid farewell to 2023 and embrace the possibilities that a new year holds, it’s only fitting to take a moment to reflect on the journey we’ve navigated over the past twelve months. I wasn’t going to write a post like this because despite over 15,000 taken last year when I think about it I dont think we did, or achieved an awful lot. 2023, for our family, was
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Musings
Boozy Christmas Gift Guide 2023
Please note that some of the items in this gift guide have been sent for the purposes of inclusion in these gift guides. The majority have also now been donated to two local schools for their fund raising Christmas raffles Wines of Spain and Portugal Jigsaw Starting with something that isnt actually booze but perfect for the wine lover in your life. This Wines of Spain and Portugal Jigsaw is
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Musings
Why I am finally leaving Twitter
I finally managed to get to the point where I am ready to explain out loud why I am leaving Twitter. A notion I never ever thought possible. Twitter was always my happy place, the place I felt able to just hang out, barge into somebody else’s conversation, chat to a celeb like I we had been best friends forever, and spout what was on my mind knowing somebody would