On Sunday evening I watched a video reel. It was a video reel of the funeral of a musician friend who I had played in youth orchestras with, lost touch with, and reconnected with a couple of years ago. She died of cancer earlier this year at the age of 55. I was aware of … More Playing small
I have recently been working with a holistic therapist in an attempt to reduce both my anxiety levels and the joint pain I have been suffering quite badly with. Visits to mainstream medics and specialists seem to have got me nowhere fast, so ‘alternative’ seemed like a reasonable way forward. To accompany some hands-on therapy … More Elimination diet
I have recently come to the end of a series of coaching sessions with Helena Holrick. Helena is someone I connected with some while back via Facebook, and her posts pop up on my feed every now and then. My reaction when they did pop up would often be a longing s-i-g-h, as I wondered … More Do I look SHINY to you?!
Yesterday, after a long and tiring day at work I was really in the mood for just flopping on the sofa and watching some mindless tv with glass of wine in hand. Instead, I attended an online networking event for coaches, with three sessions of ‘speed networking’ followed by a speaker. The speaker was William … More What did I do?
It’s Mental Health Awareness Week (MHAW) 2022. As usual, I’ve dutifully shared this information on my social media profiles, and made suitably supportive noises. I know I did the same last year, and the year before, and probably the year before that. But I have to confess to feeling that being ‘aware’ is very possibly … More Mental health awareness
Don’t get me wrong, I have amazing friends … I’m pretty sure I’ve introduced some of them to you as co-adventurers in my 2016 challenges, and life-saviours when the trials and tribulations of separation/ divorce/ single-parenting have ambushed me. Nevertheless, I’m totally up for meeting new, like-minded people and believe that what I call the … More Being sociable
During my trip to northern Morocco, I kept a log of things that ‘surprised’ me – about the country, the experience and also about myself… Here are some of the things I learned. Morocco is a heck of a lot bigger than I expected! I’m not sure I had really appreciated the scale of Africa, … More Morocco – Part 6 reflections and takeaways
Another sunny day in Marrakesh and my plans were (unsurprisingly) to pack as much in to my last few hours as possible. I wanted to visit the Jardin Majorelle, created by/for Yves St Laurent, and pick up some last minute gifts in the medina. I had breakfast, and returned to my room to check out. … More Morocco adventure – Part 5 How not to end a trip!
We left Chefchaouen by minibus at 10 am on Sunday for the 3 hour journey to Tangier. Amazing landscapes of rugged, rocky mountains punctuated by big dams and reservoirs, eventually gave way to more and more cultivated and manicured land. After a brief supermarket stop, we enjoyed a picnic lunch overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, with … More Morocco adventure – Part 4 Tangier and Marrakesh
A leisurely start today before we headed to Fes bus station for the 4 hour journey to Chefchaouen. There had been some debate over whether we were going to be travelling by bus (when I hear this term I think the number 58 to Pontprennau) or coach (think National Express or Megabus). Our tour guide, … More Morocco adventure – Part 3 Chefchaouen
Being woken at 4:30am by the first call to prayer of the day is something that is destined to be an eternal memory of this trip. But after continuing to doze until 7, and enjoying a hearty Moroccan breakfast, my first full day in Morocco began. First stop, Volubilis. For those of you who, like … More Morocco adventure – Part 2 Moulay Idriss to Fes
I’m glad to report that I am writing this from my hotel room in Fes, Morocco. As detailed in my previous post, Walking the walk, I was to embark on a solo adventure on Monday 4th April. Which I guess I did… but it didn’t quite go to plan from the off! Early start, taking … More Morocco adventure – Part 1 Adventurous misadventures!
Brave. 50 shades of it, apparently. Up for challenges. Strong, confident, adventurous. Feel the fear, and do it anyway… All of these descriptions have been attributed to little old me since 2014 threw me the curveball of my husband leaving, and 2016 saw this blog start up as a document of all the ways in … More Walking the walk
I have a strong memory from childhood of being taught that ‘giving up’ was a bad thing to do. The message I received was that once I committed to something, I should see it through… whether I liked it or not. It was ‘character building’ to stick at it (apparently) and conversely, showed an undesirable … More Stick or twist?
I had a message from my heart recently… It told me it had had enough of me pushing through its warning signs, and so gave me a much bigger signal that I needed to give myself a break. If you, like me, love the medical ‘fly-on-the-wall’ TV programmes on Channel 5 or ITV2, you might … More A message from the heart…
Life has made another quantum shift this week, as I officially became an ’empty nester’. This weekend, I moved my son into the University of Southampton. He has an amazing room in his hall of residence and I’m impressed that he made efforts to ‘chat’ with fellow freshers before he even arrived and seems to … More Roots, wings, and an empty nest
Actually, that’s not what she said. But it did. Bristol, 5th May 2021. With a mixture of excitement and trepidation, I stood in the rain outside the back door. Mask on, hood up. A heavily tattooed young man was having a cigarette under a canopy. “I’ll let her know you’re waiting,” he said, and disappeared … More This is going to hurt…
The whole premise of this blog was to document the adventures of my 50th year. Clearly, adventure sat well with me and I have not lost my lust to try new things. And this was what prompted me to join a Facebook group called the Taffy Dippers and to begin to contemplate trying out wild … More Dipping my toe in the water
Hello? Is anybody there? It has been 16 months since I last wrote a post… and we all know what happened in between. Who could have seen that coming?! Covid-19 has had a huge impact on everyone’s life, and for me it has signalled another point at which to assess where I am in life … More Emerging from lockdown
Time marches on. It’s a year since I last posted, and 4 years since I started this blog. In that time I have established a new ‘life pattern’ – my house is almost completely renovated, I am well established in my job, my daughter is at Uni and my son in sixth form – both … More Struggling