For my birthday a friend gifted me a little book called ‘Good Things are Happening – A Journal for Tiny Moments of Joy’. I have to admit, it’s been the one constant thing I have managed this year – every single day I’ve written in this journal at bedtime, recording those little moments of joy in […]
Do you know what you values drive you, make you happy, push you to excellence? I recently undertook a short exercise to determine my own values and what my core drivers might be, so as to better understand the work I should be doing. Over the past couple of years I’ve discovered certain tasks drain […]
I’m not really one for reading the classics. I once read Wuthering Heights just so I could declare a dislike for it – having given up on the novel previously because of the hatred I had for Heathcliffe, despair with Catherine, and impatience with the narration by the housekeeper. Still, I make an effort on […]
Reading is my biggest distraction from life. No matter what else is going on around me I fall between the cracks of the words and into the page. I’m known to read books in a single sitting, if I can. Slotting a bookmark into a novel and halting the story, even if I know it […]
When I moved into my first apartment with my other half I waited three years before getting a dog. I can’t believe I went dog-less for so long: it would be impossible now. But then, I was working too hard and trying to do so much; eventually it led to my illness (more on that […]
Having a dog is one of the most significant aspects of my persona. Without one, I don’t feel whole; walking without a faithful (misbehaving) pooch never feels quite right. I’ve had a dog in my life since I was twelve years old and my parents and I bought a border collie pup from a farmer […]
I’ve known my best friend for half my life: we met in college and while we weren’t one of those so-close-we-live-in-each-other’s-pockets type of friends we have maintained the friendship through consistent determination and honest conversation. We didn’t go to the same Uni, we still struggle to call one another on a regular basis, and when […]
Today is a day for sitting out in the sunshine and enjoying the day. This is the first year I’ve been able to sit in my own garden, having rented an apartment for the previous ten years. But now I have a huge patch of grass and trees to call my own, and I even […]
I kill people. I just can’t help it. There’s a running joke made by those who read my work that in pretty much every story I write somebody ends up dead. Or if not dead, dying – or dealing with death. Something deep inside me is hardwired to connect life with death, which may not […]
Here’s why I’m planning to publish a blog post each day in May 2018.
