Every Christmas, bar possibly one, my father-in-law brings home a terrible tree.  Either it’s too tall, too skinny, too crooked, or, like this time, too wrong in every way.  He bought (no idea why they charged him for it) his tree this year, and decided to split it with a friend.  The outcome is a…

I have had a headache for days now, and I seem to have developed this terrible habit of waking at least an hour before the alarm goes.  My stress levels are through the roof.  Why?  It’s only a month til Christmas.  Apparently the most wonderful time of the year.  Is it really? With every year…

is not worth living – or so Plato once said, (actually  quoting an earlier speech by Socrates). Over ten years ago, my brother used to say that to me, usually when he discovered the tell-tale Red magazine lying on my sofa.  My magazine days are long gone now, but a few days ago I remembered…

I fear that my generation have lost the ability, or the desire, to stick with things, even when the going gets tough.  Tired of re-painting your house?  Move.  Sick of the sight of your partner? Leave them.  Finding your friends too needy?  Get new ones.  Stuck in the same job for five years?  That’s too…

help you.  I went out on the bike today, only the second adventure beyond the safety of my back garden, and the first by myself.  I’d had this crazy notion that if I borrowed my mum’s bike, I could learn again how to cycle, weak legs and balance issues notwithstanding.  Today was worse than the…

This morning, as I was speaking to another mum, my wee girl went in through the school door without me noticing, or saying goodbye.  For the rest of the time since then, I have found myself feeling a bit out of kilter.  It took a few minutes to diagnose, but then I got it: we…

Perhaps it’s a youngest child syndrome, or a lack of self-confidence garnered from several years of working from home, but the truth is, I am in need of a leader.  You know, somebody to show me how to live, to confirm all of my choices, to egg me on to take the bravest step.  Even…

I have frequently waved away my husband’s insistence that the above term is real.  Of course, when I hear stories and accounts of treatment of women, I acknowledge it is a pressing concern, but my hidden away life keeps me innocent of it. Innocent, that is, until yesterday.  We were all going to a five…

After more than twelve years rebelliously stuffing myself with chick lit, I have finally got my heavy Complete Works of Shakespeare down from the top shelf.  It’s been so long I am surprised to see how many of the plays have little ticks beside them, as ones I’ve read.  I thought I’d start with the…