Following on from my last blog post, where I was rambling on about the benefits of throwing myself in at the deep end, a small amount of clarification. When I say throwing myself in, that sounds like some sort of spontaneous, caution-to-the-wind type of approach to things. This is not an approach that a massive…

So I’ve made the decision to go through the awkward stage in an effort to grow my hair to something slightly longer, and hopefully more flattering, than a 90s flat top. I’ve grown my hair before, obviously, but it’s never been this short – I was born with quite a lot of hair so I’ve…

I’m struggling a bit to write this post. Not for any of the usual reasons: blogger’s block; lack of time; difficult subject matter… none of those. There’s a cat on my lap. And she’s very fond of an iPad. In fact she likes nothing better than to drape both front legs languidly across a screen and…

Considering February’s the shortest month, it seems a bit unfair that such a lot has to be crammed into it. On top of a month’s worth of all the standard stuff, there are the flowers and chocolates to buy, the pancakes to make, and of course all the alcohol to consume to counteract the preceding…

Good old Donald Rumsfeld and his unknown unknowns. All those things we don’t know we don’t know. Can’t worry about a thing if you don’t know it’s a thing, can you? At least, that’s the theory. I’ve been doing a bit of looking back at where I was, this time last year. Or the year…

Along with everyone else at the start of a new year, I’ve recently invested in a bit of advice from a personal trainer. Due to the well known fact that a tailored plan for exercise and nutrition is all that’s required to make the overnight transition to supermodel. The (slightly abridged) version of our initial…

I was at the gym today. It’s January. Everyone in the known world was at the gym today. Anyway, while I was at the gym, I realised that there are several people I routinely see while I’m there, who I know from other areas of my life. There’s one of my ex neighbours, for example….

In the last nine days I’ve been to five countries – six if you count England. A sort of smorgasbord of Christmas. Tinsel, fairy lights, Christmas markets and a surprising number of Santa sightings. I’ve sampled all the obligatory festive fare: Swedish sausages, Danish cinnamon buns, Norwegian gingerbread, Belgian waffles (with chocolate, naturally) and French…

A few decisions have been called for this week. Mainly relating to Christmas presents. And mainly relating to what to get for people I barely know at all (work secret santa) or people who already have everything (everyone else). Other serious decisions have involved selecting clothes to pack for my Christmas holiday (weather calls for…

Today I have learnt many things. Granted, none of them particularly useful, but I’m squeezing a blog post out of them anyway. I’ve just done the Santa Dash. Which, for anyone who hasn’t had the pleasure of coming across it already, is basically a load of people who should know better, all dressed in identical…

This has been a busy week of, on the one hand, mopping up (sometimes literally) various leaks, breakages, accidents and minor catastrophes, and on the other, luxurious pampering, preening, and adorning of self and general environment. Mostly, in both cases, this has involved sticking things on and making everything look as good as possible, despite…

Finally managed to drag myself to the gym after work today, for a small experiment. The main purpose of the experiment being to see whether I could drag myself to the gym after work. So, success on that front at least. Actually, success on quite a number of fronts. I set the bar pretty low…