Blessed with some suspiciously  balmy Mediterranean weather, I end the week walking along ‘my’ seaside prom with some female friends – the type that go back years and pick up mates’ short hand mid-sentence though we haven’t got together since the snow.  From my kitchen window we toast down the sunset with glasses of Prosecco…

Thanks to another really  effective lesson plan from my yoga coach this month,  I now have another new achievement to boast of; I can stand on my head.  This is indeed a very, very good thing because I was feeling fraudulent inviting my own yoga regulars to attempt a headstand without being able to demonstrate…

I finish this week jostling for position at Heathrow amidst some high octane teensters who seem very animated about the imminent arrival of a Korean boyband. Every time the automatic doors of Arrivals slide open, a wave of selfie sticks levitate above an impatient female throng.  Knowing no Korean boy bands, I am there to…

Time has dominated this week, contorting the days as I try pathetically to wrestle a mass of conflicting responsibilities into the only time frame I can think of.  Hating to let people down and unable to move the non-negotiables like exams and deadlines,  I have let plates drop unintentionally in the day time and at…

Living by water as I now do, I hadn’t expected to mellow into an Italian lakeside break  in quite such an acceptable fashion.  ‘My’ water is coastal, briney and bracing whereas the waters of Lake Iseo turn out to be  smooth, cool and languid. They sip away my end of term  weariness and even lap…

I’ve learnt in this season of discontent, that’s it’s best for me to spend a lot of time outside, not only to find some clean air to breathe, but also so I can literally look for dragonflies; I’ve been looking in all their usual haunts over the past few weeks, but I’ve seen not a…

Appropriately enough my obsession with jelly babies started in early childhood; if my father elected me ‘Sweet Monitor’ at the start of the long annual car drive that heralded a family holiday to some coastal damp hell hole,  this was the closest I could get to wielding power over my three older siblings and pretending…

I’m bracing myself for some serious dressing up this week, instead of the monotonous dressing down of last month.

When we were much younger, my older sister was forced to share a bedroom with me.  We fought constantly and she strategically placed her rocking chair to mark  the centre of the room in a domestic Maginot line that she dared me to cross.  My sister’s half was organised, stylish and sophisticated; my half refused…

It’s felt that the dragonfly has been putting on weight and resting too long on my shoulder this week; its next flight launch must surely be imminent. I could do with being reminded of its beauty and lightness of touch. Instead, it’s causing my heart to tense. I knew that forging this new life wasn’t…