Bollygood

You will have wondered how I have been ploughing my way through my smorgasbord of birthday experiences – each adventure gifted to me on the event of my 60th birthday after some shameless begging of chums to treat me to something that I may not have experienced before. In my defence, I was extremely broke…

Outside In

Far be it for me to write the script for ‘Inside Out 3’, but after watching ‘Inside Out 2’ (finally), I am excited to start a conversation about the emotions that might be at play inside an older person’s head (I emphasise the word ‘play’ here to manifest my New Year intention to stay positive)….

Mum’s the word

Running along a Dorset coastal path this morning – Twixmas fog coaxing me dangerously close to not greeting in the New Year – I find myself ridiculously upbeat considering that I am dragging nearly two weeks’ of over-indulgence up a tricky incline and already regret entering Brighton Marathon 2025 in a rash moment of running…

Careless whispers

I have decided to share a grumpy senior women vent about a lack of volume control in public places, and I am not just referring to ‘ambient’ music. Before you accuse me of hypocrisy, I freely admit that I shamelessly get some of my writing ideas by earwigging into other people’s conversations – some might…

Mudlarking

I am close to the point of looking back over my shoulder at my sixtieth year. If you remember, I celebrated ‘that’ birthday by encouraging friends to coax me out of my comfort zone and do something with them that they enjoyed but I had not experienced before. I was spoilt with such an embarrassment…

Wobble

It felt strange to reach the end of the first school term of my teaching career with no date in the diary for a cheeky coffee with my mother, a catch up which would have allowed me to recalibrate, decompress and make sense of it all. Without indulging in a pity party (just a small…

No words

I have blogged about my mother many times; I always confessed to her afterwards and she always seemed chuffed to hear that she had been my muse. Mum never asked to read the published content – preferring paper I guess – but occasionally would say, ‘no doubt you can use this story in a future…

Otherwise engaged

If I have one complaint about grown up ‘kids’, it is that they sometimes take their time providing me with a shameless excuse to giggle hysterically and leak happy mother tears simultaneously. Some may call their approach selfish but because my children are practically perfect in every way I defend them with the excuse that…

Flying backwards

I have just arrived at my chap’s cottage ‘in the shire’. It is a blistering hot day; it has been a long drive and this flying visit comes at the end of a long teaching term and a testing few days at the start of the school holiday. I am a tad grumpy, a tad…

Tour de force

Something weird has been going on with my algorithms; despite being a runner, I find myself incessantly nudged by ads and pop-ups about cycling. First I am insulted – I am age-aware but have no need to be niche-marketed by a company called ‘Granny Gear’ – then I find myself strangely intrigued to discover that…