In a bun dance

If I'm going to get something, I usually get it in spades - luck (both kinds), children, clutter, dirty laundry, bright ideas, daft ideas...

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Down with tinsel

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… At least for another month. I arrived in Aviemore on Friday night. For a yoga weekend, if you care. And the bright moonlight bounced off the orange and yellows in the trees. Sometimes the mild gusts caught another handful of crinkly leaves and flung them down the Main Street.  Autumn colours suitably pumpkiny for […]

Auschwitz: unequal to the task

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This weekend we travelled to Poland and visited Auschwitz and Birkenau. I called this post unequal to the task because there’s nothing I can say about the place and what happened there that would come anywhere near doing it justice. But the camp was – horrifically – equal to its hellish task. Astonishingly so. 1.3 […]

Brewers Fayre, Linwood: much, much better than you’d think

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Do you remember the years before kids? When spontaneity was more than just a difficult word to spell and now was as good a time as any… Back then eating out was just part of life – see funky new restaurant, go there, dine. My pre-baby self no doubt imagined sharing these culinary delights with […]

Family adventures: ghyll scrambling in Cumbria

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It would be fair to say that, as a family, we are something of a mixed bag. We comprise the bold, the well-balanced, the dumpy, the wobbly, the gung-ho, the cautious, exercisers and those who tend to the horizontal. And there’s only five of us. Add that to the fact that Boy Three is six […]

The 15 biggest time-wasters of modern life

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Progress is great, isn’t it? Labour-saving devices all over the place – you name it and there’s a machine to do it for you. Push a button and your clothes get clean, flick a switch and the dishes get done, turn a dial for dinner and the keypad for exactly the kind of coffee that […]

Just Say Cheese! Help Primula Cheese #spreadasmile for Make-A-Wish UK

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I’ve got lots to smile about. This lot for a start – but not everyone is so lucky. That’s why I’m supporting the #spreadasmile campaign. This World Smile Day Primula Cheese launches a new campaign working with Make-A-Wish® UK to raise funds to help grant magical wishes to seriously ill children Throughout October and November, […]

National Museum of Scotland – brilliant but too big

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Yet another phase of Boy One’s forthcoming 16th birthday took us to Edinburgh and the huge museum on Chambers Street. He’s into history – period irrelevant. Boy Three is doing the Celts at school and he was chuffed. Boy Two is largely interested in dramatic sighs, sneering and eye-rolling, venue irrelevant. And so we set […]