I have just spent a few days away in France, staying near a little town called Eymet, in the South West Dordogne region and not far from Bergerac. Eymet is a beautiful, typical Bastide town layout which includes an open central square, featuring a large fountain, with roads lined with […]
Easter, even if you’re not religious is a good time to reflect on what is meant by a good life and it can offer a hopefully useful answer: that success is not about worldly triumph, money or happiness but about developing an ability to use one’s own suffering as a […]
This post could also be entitled “Let’s Talk About Poo,” like my last blog post, but this one is in fact about Brexit. Not that much to say that hasn’t already been said over and over and over again. We all have Brexit exhaustion and I have chosen to stick […]
It’s Bowel Cancer Awareness Month and so I thought I ought to say a few words about the uncomfortable subject of talking about poo. My father died of bowel cancer and I’m fairly sure part of the reason is that he left it far longer than he should have to […]
HAPPY SINGLE PARENTS DAY!! I know that being a lone parent is very hard work and very often thankless. Doing the every day stuff on your own means there is no one to support or agree with you, no one who comes home to you at the end of a […]
BREXIT DAY IS LOOMING WITH JUST 8 DAYS TO GO AND WE ARE NO CLEARER ABOUT THE PLAN. WHERE IS THE PLAN? THERE IS NO FUCKING PLAN. We are in a vacuum at best with the danger of falling into a big black hole next week. Totally unbelievable to be […]
My youngest child has just taken off for Thailand for the start of his gap year travels with some mates. Now I just have to work out how to carry on living my life and not worrying about him every 30 seconds. I’ve done all I can and now it’s […]
Blimey. The scandal in America regarding desperate parents bribing coaches and cheating on students’ entrance exams has reached a new low. Some parents have apparently paid $500,000 to a “university admissions consultant” who can then get their children into the universities of choice such as Yale and Stamford, through the […]
I hate this stupid ongoing trend for Gap Year Travel. I wasn’t bloody allowed to have one – probably because they weren’t invented when I was their age, but honestly, it’s so traumatic for the parents, I think they should be banned – at least until their frontal lobes are […]
Bonjour. Ca va? Je m’appelle Affaires de Famille et je vais en Angleterre à Londres. Je suis trés vieux et consequentment je suis en difficulté avec apprendre des mots français. Ce TRES DIFFICILE et je suis MERDE AT IT parce que mon brain cellules ne répondent pas. La semaine après […]
I thought I’d write a letter to my 23 year old daughter on International Women’s Day to offer her some sage advice from an older, wiser woman who has been round the block a few times and got the scars, the wrinkly skin and the snaggle-teeth to prove it. That […]
The fashion world has clearly gone mad and it’s time to get a grip. Fashion needs to change. Literally. Karl Lagerfeld, the creative director of Chanel who died this week has left his cat, Choupette, some of his £150 million fortune apparently. She already has a bodyguard, two ladies in […]
OK so I’m going to have a go at predicting the “AND THE WINNER IS…” moments for the Oscar’s this year. What does anyone else think? BEST PICTURE A Star is Born (I know, it’s very, very hard to choose…) LEAD ACTRESS Lady Gaga, A Star Is Born LEAD ACTOR (thought […]
