Last weekend I set off for a long-awaited weekend in Leeds with my uni girls. The feeling I had boarding that train out of Newcastle was I imagine very close to how Nelson Mandela felt the day he left Robben Island. I mean I don’t wish to diminish the importance Read more…
Now Santa before I get started, I want to say first of all, that my husband is a good man. A really good man. For 11 months of the year. He shares the parental and home-life workload with me really fairly. A bit like I imagine you do with Mrs Read more…
The women who do Pilates, the mothers of the adult children, fully grown, nest flown they tell me that one day I will miss all this (as they sip their post class cappuccino in peace). And they are right, surely? They must be. For they are old(er) and wise(r) One Read more…
1 – Getting older is a fucking gift. The biggest of all privileges. Don’t fight it, embrace it. Be so bloody thankful for all the days you’ve been blessed with. Remember the people who would’ve given their right arm, and more, to reach the age of forty when you’re whingeing Read more…
After a few years of trying to get pregnant we turned to IVF. We were lucky and after only one round, there it was – that illusive second line on a pregnancy test. Twins! Text book pregnancy, I was gigantic but loved every second of it…until a the scan two days Read more…
8 things I’ve learned from the hell of homeschooling I could not be a primary school teacher So, let me be clear before we begin talking about homeschooling. I am a qualified teacher. I have a PGCE in Further Education and teach PE in a school, albeit only one day Read more…
I went through it real tough, for four whole years. Heartbreaking infertility struggles. It started fun, you know? Quick shag here and there. Then “Shall we…. Conveniently forget the protection?” … “Hell yeah?!” Months went by and this fun became a little… Well, regimented. THE OVULATION TEST’S POSITIVE GO! GO! Read more…
As we approach the first anniversary of Covid, one that NO ONE will be celebrating, I’ve been taking stock of the many changes this past 11 months have so kindly delivered. This time last year, I was starting to think about half term plans for my boys (then 7 and Read more…
I’ve never taken a drug in my life. No sirree. Not for me. I’ve watched in amazement at my friends dancing until dawn, sweating their tits off and gurning like they’d swallowed a lemon rather than an E. I’m risk averse you see. If I had ever taken anything I Read more…
16th May 2018 the day our lives changed for the third time. Our youngest daughter, Ava was born. It was a fairly quick birth after being induced but unlike my other two she didn’t cry straight away and the midwife called for help as Ava needed a little bit of Read more…