In denial

My oldest friend is in denial about turning sixty. For once I am ahead of the game (being that much older than she is) and I am able to tell her that she will love every minute. I can also offer my friend the gift of pronouncing to the world that tomorrow is her 60th…

A victory dance

The week begins with the first Year 10 mock examination, and it is not long until I am called out to the girls’ toilets to extricate a student; she has stormed out of her Biology exam in a purple haze after twenty minutes of multiple guess, telling the invigilator to ‘go and do one’. Sadly…

Getting shirty

My A Level students seem intent on kicking me out of my literary crenellations, ignoring my shameless plugging of 18th and 19th Century classics and steering us towards a vortex of science fiction prose as a federation shuttlecraft from which to launch their coursework. Selfish. I blame the pandemic. A gothic castle or a cloistered…

Long term gains

Far be it for me to offer updates on my latest foray into the world of ultra-running, for last year I promised retirement once completing anything over 26.2 miles. (I achieved this ‘first’ last May – proving something to myself in the process and ruining a perfectly adequate body and running vest by falling over…

Tequila little time

Since writing about the art of spectating in my last blog, the world has opened up to me in a pleasing fashion; I now have a guilt-free and legitimate reason to watch life pass me by, and some friends have invited me in from the cold to come inside and watch ‘interesting things’ with them….

A gift

I break silence after many months of blog absence to update you that I have finally arisen (albeit dragging myself up in a pitiful fashion) from the ashes of DIY and the depths of many, many removal boxes to publicise my soft launch into official cottage residency. When I say silence, in reality you may…

Strava Striving

You heard not a whimper from your’s truly on January 1st about taking ‘up’ anything new for 2024. This was an intentional casting aside of too many adult years spent setting myself – and my kids (so sorry) targets to achieve over the subsequent 12 months. This year, on a New Year’s Day run (start the year…

Branching out

I am back to report that reaching Level 60 in this game called Life is absolutely fab – I can only apologise for my curmudgeonly approach to the Big Day back in December. I am now older and wiser. ‘Reaching 60’ sounds ancient, whereas ‘Level 60’ in gaming terms infers that I have ‘levelled up’ and earned…

Navigating 60 Something

News flash, this blog will not be able to rest on its ‘fifty-something’ laurels once the clock strikes midnight later and there is a more likelihood that I will awake tomorrow as an overripe pumpkin rather than as a fairy-tale princess. I am not particularly bothered by the number – it is a privilege to…

Nothing to show

I feel pretty rusty as I hit the keyboards today, for I have been silent on the blog front since the Summer holidays and now publicly confess that I have absolutely nothing to show from this self-imposed break. Lying by an Italian pool with my Favourite Daughter back in July, and fuelled by some medicinal…