Middle-aged, Free and Single

It's Nice to be Nice

But not to other people – we all know we should do that. This is about being nice to ourselves. I think that’s harder. In Why Should You Care I wrote about filling the kettle and putting a teabag in a mug so that when I get up in the morning or get in from…

See Naples and…

In my new job, we have to book time off. Not so unusual – but it wasn’t like that in my two previous careers. In teaching you just get the school holidays, no option. And when you work for yourself you can (theoretically) take time off whenever you want. In practice, you rarely take time…

It's Valentine's Day

Humph

The Price of Fish

120 years ago today my Great Grandfather left the fishing port of Anstruther in Scotland on board the ‘Bernicia’, heading out into the North Sea. The boat, and her crew, never returned. This was written by another relative of mine – On February 12th, 1900, the Shields-registered steam-liner ‘Bernicia‘ left Anstruther harbour with her Cellardyke…

8 Advantages of Working from Home – and 8 Disadvantages

Storm Ciara is beating itself against my windows, and I’m due to leave for work in a couple of hours. I was (still am) running a limited company with my husband (the one who left nearly a year ago). For me that meant working from home. I wrote this a couple of years ago, before…

The Nights are Getting Lighter

I made breakfast in daylight for the first time in ages the other day. And yesterday I started work at 7am – which still involved driving there in the dark, but not for much longer! There are flowers on the clematis – spring is springing. There’s hope on the horizon. We’ve turned the corner. Once…

What Colour Do You Feel Today?

How do you feel? I mean, how do you really feel? Happy? Or depressed? Or?? It seems to me that we’ve started to think that if we’re not feeling happy then we must be feeling sad. And if we’re feeling sad we must be suffering from depression. And if we’re suffering from depression we need…

Change of Name, Change of Passport

I changed my name by Deed Poll. Which means I’ve needed to apply for a new passport. And yes, rather than leave it until I’m actually going somewhere, I decided to apply for a new one now. Sooner rather than later. Maroon rather than blue. It arrived, all shiny, on 28th January, three days before…

Supernumerary on Dry Land

The sailor was home from the sea. And so was the Supernumerary. We were on leave. No, not that sort of Leave. My first husband was in the Merchant Navy, and I was privileged to be able to go to sea with him. On my first trip we’d joined the ship in Hull sailed across…

Leaving

Today is 31st January 2020. This is the last day that we will be ‘in Europe’. At 11 o’clock tonight, I believe, we’ll float off into the Atlantic. Presumably heading for America. So I’d like to say a few words. I’d like to thank the European Union for giving me the opportunity – and the…

10 Benefits of Volunteering

I used to be a volunteer with the National Trust until life got in the way and I had to get a proper job. I still do it when I can, and I still miss it a lot. I wrote about it for my column at 60 & Me. My posts for them have to…