It wasn’t until a friend said that she was getting highly stressed by Christmas, that I realised something. I really need to get stressed about Christmas! I’ve been coasting along in a bubble, doing other things, just vaguely pootling about as usual, while all the time Christmas has been lurking under the surface, just like …
Gah! It’s nearly time for my half term idyll to come to an end. It’s only by the grace of God – or an inset day – that I am able to bring you this, from my dressing gown, at the shocking hour of 10.30. I have no idea how I’m going to manage waking …
I’ve just finished reading Sophie Kinsella’s latest lovely book, Mini Shopaholic – what? It’s research for my novels, honestly – and the result has been that I’ve suddenly reassessed my own spending habits. The book’s heroine, Becky, is a rampant spender, who literally starts to twitch when she passes an outlet store. She has to …
Thanks to lovely Ben Shaws, who have lavished us with fizzy drinks this month. When they asked me to try them out, I remembered having seen the name in my youth. Turns out that even my grandmother could have been slurping back some of their flavours, as they’ve been carbonating away for 140 years. The …
I’ve always had a soft spot for alpaca. It’s my firm belief that an alpaca jumper saved my life at university. I was at St Andrews, dangling on the edge of Scotland, in a setting which could not have been more beautiful. I took a daily constitutional by the sea. I admired the ruined cathedral. …
Sponsored There are some words which instantly grab my attention in an email subject line. Chocolate is one – though I never deigned to reply to the PR who used the word chocolate to get me to open the mail, then didn’t mention it again once in a 300-word puff for something that didn’t fit …
I’ve been lucky enough to have been sent some lovely swag this month, er, I mean products to put through the earnest testing procedure in place here at Divorce Towers. First is a DVD of Harry Potter’s second-to-last jaunt, the Deathly Hallows. I’d been dying to see this film ever since it came out last …
I don’t know about you, but I find it hard to ignore the word ‘chocolate’ in the subject line of an email. So much so that I’m very much afraid that I’ll ignore a pile of urgent missives from friends and family in order to zoom straight to that tempting word. Of course, this could …
This review time is looooooong overdue so massive apologies to everyone who’s sent me lovely things to test and then been drumming their fingers while I move, lose my washing, and blog endlessly about it instead of getting down to some constructive work ….. Well, the wait is finally over. I haven’t found my washing, obviously, but I …
Sponsored post On my new route to the school after moving house, there’s a Co-op store. Already, it’s been a godsend. There’s a clothes recycling bin for all the stuff I paid to have moved and which there is now no room for. There are glass recycling facilities for all the extra bottles of Chardonnay …