You can listen to the audio version of this blog via Spotify.

Time after time

I’ll be honest with you, I am finding this Lockdown rather wearing now and I think that’s the general consensus.

I hear so many people say they're finding it harder than the ones before and I totally get it. It’s the third one. It’s Winter. We almost feel like we can touch the freedom of being able to go out and about, yet it seems just out of reach, which means we can find it that bit more frustrating.

The goal posts seem to constantly move – we have a date when we might be out of Lockdown, it gets reviewed and then extended. Schools are going to go back mid-February in England but that changes to March. Schools in Scotland are to go back 22 February – so, might the date change for schools in England? Who knows, it’s all under review. I make no political comment on decisions that are made because with the ever-shifting sands of this pandemic, I’m sure...

You can listen to the audio version of this blog via Spotify.

Talk of the town

There are obviously so many things I miss doing because this wretched COVID-19 situation has put a stop to them, and that includes the simple pleasures, such as watching the older members of my community all bump into one another at the village shop and then proceed to have a good ole natter. Sometimes they then take themselves off to the café across the road, to continue their chat over a cuppa and I have been in the café before now and whilst nursing a lovely mug of hot chocolate, and watching the world go by through the café’s wonderful almost panoramic windows, I amuse myself listening to the fellow café goers’ banter.

It’s usually all harmless stuff, discussing the general comings and goings of the village, who’s died, who’s moved out, how everything is changing – usually not for the better in their opinion, and everything in...

You can listen to the audio version of this blog via Spotify.

Is it the most wonderful time of the year..?

“The one good thing about this whole #ruleof6 thing is that Christmas will be less of a nightmare for me.” So said one woman in a rather loud voice when I was in a café the other day. I was sat waiting for my Mum to arrive, so thought I’d sit and listen – there wasn’t much choice not to! “Well, I think you make a rod for your own back. You don’t need to have them all over – there are so many with all their kids too, but every year you cave and round they come. You should let them do it one year,” answered this woman’s friend. The Christmas host then proceeded to say that her house is neutral ground and if one of her kids hosts the day, there’s usually a falling out and she doesn’t like that at Christmas. “How can I say no? They expect me to do it. Besides, I like making everyone happy,...

The obstacle course that is life

Post Rugby World Cup semi-final with England vs New Zealand, I was taking a breath revelling in England’s victory, when Ninja Warrior UK started. My family love this programme – the fantastic attitude the competitors bring to the course, the entertainment element and watching through your fingers as you will them on, hoping they don’t fall into the water…

I watched as one guy, who you’d never expect to take part in a challenging obstacle course, complete the whole thing in almost record time. Talk about never judge a book by its cover… His frame was pretty wiry, he wore a baggy t-shirt - which looked more like something you’d wear on a sloppy Sunday - and he just didn’t look like someone who’d be up for an adrenaline-fuelled session on an obstacle course. Yet he didn’t seem to take a breath between each monkey ring, wind chime, balance log, jump hang and finally, ‘The Wall’....