I have busied myself over the last week to prevent myself from checking my phone too often to see if there are any new messages from my sister. I read somewhere that it takes six weeks to break an old habit, but I am starting to think that this particular sister detox may take much…
A Change of Address
You may have noticed that my blog silence extended a little longer than I anticipated. You probably thought that I (Dora) decided to stay Kenya-bound and master the detail of chapatti and mandazi recipes before returning to run an artisan cookery school back in the UK (thankfully – for Food & Hygiene Inspectors – this…
Dora the Explorer
I nearly didn’t blog this week, and I certainly won’t over the next couple of weeks (clear your diaries, people), but I find myself with a couple of hours before I leave to catch up with the intrepid group of teachers and students who have led the forward party to Kenya without me. I have…
Sister Act
The older I get the more I realise how valuable the childhood games I played were – particularly the ones I played with my sisters. I have started to worry that our game playing time may soon become limited and that I may need to reorganise my priorities. I feel like calling my sisters up…
Better Every Year
I’m not sure if FD (Favourite Daughter) will read this – let us hope not, for she will doubtless want to make some edits – however I make no apology for the blog being all about her, for it is her birthday this week, and although I am in no position to be a neutral…
A Kenyan Count Down
In the absence of a marathon to train for – or any last minute tickets for Glastonbury – I find myself having to acknowledge that three weeks today, Dora The Explorer will head off to Kenya with a troop of lovely students and teachers. Excited though I am, I have tried valiantly not to look…
Just you wait…
Apologies for being late with this blog; I have been meaning to write it since last Monday, but every time I thought about doing so, something more urgent cropped up. Something more urgent like: loading the washing machine; paying the gas bill; cleaning the bath or cutting my split ends out. I think this tendency…
Support team
Since those heady London Marathon days (#youdidn’texpectmetoholdoutforeversurely), and my self-imposed fast from anything running related, you should perhaps feel grateful that I am back on the running track this week. I have safely negotiated the risk of outing myself as a ‘Love Island’ viewer and saved you from reading a vacuous and shallow ‘Love Island’…
Today this could be…
As I have told you many times, I am someone who models their life on Monica from ‘Friends’ and I definitely prefer to let ‘rules control the fun’. However, I challenged myself over this Half Term break to be as random and spontaneous as possible. Naturally I set this challenge weeks ago and gave myself…
Purple Prose
I made two mistakes yesterday and both of them left me looking like a Victoria Plum. Firstly I managed to fall over myself while jogging along a coastal path -resulting in a grazed knee and dented pride in front of some hikers (‘no, no, I’m fine, you walk on with your rucksacks and gaiters’), and…
The Dragonfly Jar 