Category Archive

I use an app called Libri Vox to help me sleep at night. Basically it reads to you from books that are out of copyright* classics mainly. I have been through the Little Women series several times (not helped by the fact you fall asleep!) In one of the later books Meg and her daughter Daisy were having avid and (to them) interesting conversations with a … Read More

I walk every morning in a field behind the house; every day I am alert for two dogs who I mentally term ‘the hounds of the Baskervilles’. If I even hear them barking I’ll go in another direction. This is based on a couple of encounters where they have raced up to me growling and their owner has very little control over them. She then adds fuel to the … Read More

I am with Gary Barlow (Take That) on this one, give yourself time. We live in a very busy instant gratification world, rush, rush, rush. Being busy is like a badge of honour and somehow you are slacking if you are not.  Texting, social media, ready meals what are we saving all of this time for? People are very impatient and get … Read More

Hands up all of you who have seen Eat, Pray, Love? Or read the book? Or done both? Two hands up! It’s about a women who decides to take a year off to travel and sort herself out. At the end she feels much happier and settled inside herself and then a new opportunity arises for a different life; should she … Read More

Thoughts of the Future Happy New Year; I hope you all had a peaceful and Happy Xmas. It’s an odd time of year, quiet and still outwardly very little happening, but what lies underneath? How many of you have planted bulbs? It is an act of faith and is such a pleasure when your work comes to fruition in the spring. I have shamelessly copied the idea of … Read More

All I want for Christmas I have found all of the media hysteria about Xmas quite irritating to put it mildly; there will be no turkeys or pigs in blankets; no plastic rubbish to put into children’s stockings.Xmas will be ruined….really? We only need to think back to last year when we would have been grateful to have shared Xmas with our families and … Read More

Time; is waiting in the wings**David Bowie This newsletter was inspired by Shoshana Boyd Gelfand on Radio 4’s Something Understood. We cannot taste, touch, smell, hear or feel time, but we are very conscious of it. Clocks, phones, alarms, deadlines, appointments, days, months, years and seasons time ticks by. Time was born at the same point as the universe at the big bang; interestingly in the … Read More

Well, it had to happen at some point a positive Covid test, despite PPE, inoculations, boosters, social distancing, mask wearing and trying to keep healthy.Ten days of isolation whilst not feeling 100% it’s been an interesting experience partly because I don’t think I’ve ever been ill for that long and the novel experience of having to manage my activity levels.  Of course not being able to go anywhere helps. Friends; neighbours … Read More

Heartbreak What with all this study of pain I thought I would have a look at emotional pain. Now scientifically this is a bit tricky; pain needs to be felt somewhere, it needs to be unpleasant and you want it to stop. So far so good, but you can locate pain in a specific area and know it’s pain (even though we now know … Read More

A business coach I know decided at the age of 22 to retire at 50. He didn’t have children, move house often or get divorced, all expensive activities. He also studied investing and basically spent less than he earned. He was a great spreadsheet man and knew exactly how much he was going to need and created a plan to make it happen. Basically … Read More

I recently went shopping in Bath, I was looking forward to being able to go into shops, be around people have a look at stuff. In three shops I experienced really quite poor service; in one it was so bad that I decided against my purchase. Had the assistant even made eye contact with me I would have bought the item. It has … Read More

Re-arranging the furnitureOne of the things about lockdown it has given those of us not working time to reflect and consider life, the universe and everything. I have had plenty of time to contemplate what does and does not work in my life. You know when your computer memory is too full and the computer function becomes very slow. It’s … Read More