A lifestyle blog
Not Highclere as people often mis-hear, but Highcliffe Castle on Window Wednesday today The first clue we had were the ladies “of a certain age” occupying ever bench in the grounds. It wouldn’t have surprised me if they had a picnic and a Thermos hidden in their bags too because they certainly looked like this was a regular occurrence for them. Certainly in the summer, anyway. 4pm on a
You might not know what I am talking about when I say the Amazon Dash, so let me bring you up to speed. A while ago I wrote this: Genius or most stupid thing ever about how much I loved the Amazon Dash Buttons. In a nutshell, pre-programmed wifi enabled buttons that by pressing once their assigned item is ordered and delivered to you the next day. There was
I was standing in a doorway, my mum on her hands and knees in the far corner of the walk in wardrobe. There was a sizeable pile of assorted towels, sheets, duvet covers and pillow cases behind us on the bed. Some cushions already gathered up off the bed and stuffed into a bin bag looked like they were about to fall over. In the background I could
I have always said I would be suited to being a lady who lunches. It seems like the perfect way to spend your days, doesn’t it? A couple of weeks ago I had that very thought confirmed. Right after I had spent a leisurely afternoon on board the Betsie Jane on the River Hamble, glass of gin in hand. “Yes, this is the life”, I thought. You
Window Wednesday and it is London this week, not all of it, obviously, but the view from my parent’s apartment. Samuel Johnson famously said that “When a man is tired of London he is tired of life” and he wasn’t wrong. Though the other way round is not necessarily the same thing at all. This week on Window Wednesday it is the window that made me think about how
Roomba If Elizabeth Barrett Browning had a Roomba then Sonnet 43 might have read like this: How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee for relieving me of the plight Of carpet cleaning that you get just right For your gentle whirring and idle grace. I love thee at 11am every day’s As you do your deed, come rain or shine. I love thee freely,
… and you want to give them a house warming gift. What do you give them? When they are your best friends and you want to get them something that will last for years and that might remind them of your friendship whenever they see it. I have known the Cookes for over 15 years. Moving in to the house next door to them when I got divorced, it
Waterside Holiday Park sits just outside the seaside town of Weymouth, on the Dorset Coast. On the bit of England known as the Jurassic coast, with views out to Portland and its lighthouse called Bill. Not that I knew any of this before Waterside invited us to come down and stay with them for the weekend, you understand. And if I am honest, we still don’t know anymore than
In my continuing posts about my love of the Thermomix (or as I call it “75 Reasons to love Thermomix) this time I turn to the Cookidoo recipe platform, and why it gives you a luxury that money cannot buy: time. I have been thinking about this a lot recently. It doesn’t matter how much money you have, you can’t buy time. It’s a fixed commodity and
For Window Wednesday this week I am featuring this little gem: Mr Fogg’s Gin Parlour. Mr Fogg’s is an old fashioned gin parlour that feels like an 18th century front room, right in the heart of London, tucked away between Leicester Square and Covent Garden tube stations, with a bar serving gin and afternoon tea. I had been meaning to meet up with a friend when I was next in
Murder Mystery Party Game No dont worry, I am not about to confess to some heinous crime. This is the tagline on the back of a game we recently played with some friends, over dinner. We take it in turns to have dinner at each of our houses and I have now gone through my repertoire of meals I can offer guests who aren’t family. And as
Twitter erupted as the trailer revealing the 13th Dr Who was shown just after the Mens Wimbledon Final yesterday. To be honest I had forgotten the BBC had scheduled it to be shown then, because we haven’t watched Dr Who since Sir David of the Tennant left a few years ago. Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi, whilst great actors, just didn’t feel like great choices, so where once we all
