What it Means to be Cool
What Does Cool Mean? Some people seem just effortlessly cool? But are they? One of the dangers of having time on our hands is over thinking things. This week I was invited by a friend to join in with one of those facebook challenges that are going round where you are asked to show your […]
Using Board Games to Choose your Career
The Board Game Algorithm Hmmm… I like playing Scrabble so therefore I am not going to give up on being a successful writer one day just yet! Yesterday I called a family meeting. The girls looked anxious! As a rule family meetings are reserved for fairly serious discussions and announcements, but this was just a […]
Delia Owen’s Where the Crawdads Sing
Book Review of Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens Where the Crawdads Sing has received mixed reviews, yet it has sold 4 million copies! Reviewers have criticised it for reading like young adult fiction and lacking sophisticiation. It has been slated because a court room drama cannot sit side-by-side with a rich atmospheric account […]
Inexpensive Gestures of Kindness
The Personal Touch – Gifts and Cards I woke up this morning to a lovely ‘Happy Songkran’ card from my friend Duang in Bangkok. She is also the esteemed illustrator of two of my children’s books ‘The Day the Wi-Fi Broke’ and ‘Just Five More Minutes’. (She draws under the name NokIsMe). The card featured a Happy Songkran message […]
Missing your Partner
Missing your Boyfriend or Husband I’m not sure when I’m gonna see this ‘old fella’ again, but at least I get to talk to him a lot online The Flint and the Flint Smith ladies are all without their men! Dad is in a carehome with a broken leg in pot. This is particularly hard on my […]
Deepa Anappara’s Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line
Book Review of Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara The story, Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line, shares the events prior to and following the disappearance of several children who go missing in a slum area of India. It is a powerful story with beautifully drawn characters, revealed to us from the perspective of […]