The life of a freelancer is peaks and troughs and despite living in The Shire for around 5 years it has taken me a long time to find my footing amongst the local business community. I think partly because I have been trying to transition into becoming a more established journalist and partly, because it’s taken me a while to […]

Two weeks ago my blog went offline. I called the guy who was looking after my hosting and I didn’t hear back from him. I had noticed that he was no longer on Facebook but didn’t think much about it because he was a weird, geeky, clammy handed, developer, who was a bit odd. After a few phone calls and […]

Once upon time there was a young chalet girl who worked a ski season. She was the party queen of Courcheval 1850 circa 1990, nicknamed ‘Queenie’. She held the record for slamming the most tequila slammers in a row. She was an ‘Aprés Animal’.   But 25 years later the Aprés Animal has hung up her party shoes. Incarcerated by […]

It was quite nerve wracking to send my kids on a bushcraft camping holiday. I was anxious when I picked them up – would they resent me for abandoning them in the cold woods for four sleeps? How wrong I was to worry – they had an absolute blast. Don’t take my word for it watch the movie we made […]

We’ve all seen the coming of age US camp films where parents pack the kid’s off to camp for the summer. I worked as a sailing instructor for 3 seasons working on outdoor activity centres in the South of France and Spain. To me activity holidays are fantastic places for kids to learn new skills and make new friends. I […]

The publishing world of words can feel like a sausage machine. Writers quietly steel themselves away and pen tomes, reveal them to the world, readers devour them or ignore them unaware of the years of toil that has been invested in the pages. If a writer is successful they are expected to churn out bestseller after bestseller without any thought, […]

A life connected to the military means a lot of time away for the serving partner. This is just the reality of life and to be honest I am used to it. Jules over at The Giggles Family has put together this fab post: http://www.thegigglesfamily.com/2015/03/tips-from-military-wives-helping.html with some top tips to help military partners cope with ‘away’ time be that deployment, exercise, training, […]

According to new cock womble research, breastfed babies are more likely to turn into well-educated and higer-earning adults according to a long-term study in Brazil. ” Our study provides the first evidence that prolonged breastfeeding not only increases intelligence until at least the age of 30 years, but also has an impact both at an individual and societal level by […]

Kids grow at an alarming rate. It was only yesterday, or so it seems (!), that they were taking those first tottering steps from the crawling stage. All of a sudden, they want to be mobile. As they reach the age of three or four, you buy their first tricycle and soon they’re careering around the kitchen, front room, and […]

Every year, parents go to great lengths to convince their children that Santa really does exist, continuing family traditions such as wrapping presents in different paper, eating Santa’s mince pie on Christmas night and even leaving ‘snowy footprints’ around the house. But it’s not easy, and even the most careful and creative can be caught out! To help keep the […]