Uncategorised
School Shoes
I will always remember my mum taking me to buy school shoes. It was a very tricky recurring event in my life and I think the mental acrobatics that it caused in my brain at a young age has a Read more
Uncategorised
On this Day…
… about thirty years ago, I received my very first Valentine’s Day card. I was a gawky, lanky, overly serious and extremely studious teenager, and the notion that someone might “fancy” me from afar was utterly incomprehensible. Yet there it Read more
Uncategorised
Marcus Uranus Phallus and The Last Days of Rome
Right now, as I gaze out of my window at the mess that is our front patio, I can totally understand why the Romans left Britain. Imagine the scene; it is January, Blue Monday no less, some time around 408 Read more
personal blog
Identity Crisis
The new year has begun, as we knew it would, and once again I am filled with a desire to be better. A desire, yes. But an action plan on how to achieve this enhanced me – no. There are Read more
Uncategorised
What to do with The Boy
I vowed not to write about my kids but… The conundrum of Boy Seymour is a curious one. He is everything a teenaged chap should be and more: a doughnut devouring, untidy, loud, contrary, lanky, lovable, clumsy, antagonizing and often Read more
personal blog
Strong Women
Somewhere in my house is a notebook – one of many- in which I have diarised significant events in my life. Some notebooks are full of scribbled teenage angst, others are laden with self-doubt, offloaded confessions and repeated resolutions. But Read more
personal blog
Six Seven!
In spite of always trying to be aware of the world around me, and to keep up with developments, especially the kind of developments that may be relevant to school-aged children, I must admit that I have now drawn a Read more
Uncategorised
Four Middle-Class Mummies in a Waiting Room
I thought of a book last week, as I sat in a waiting room with Mini Seymour. The book in question is Class, by Jilly Cooper, a satirical observation of the strange hierarchies that existed in society in Cooper’s heyday. Read more
Uncategorised
A Fresh Angle… or so I thought.
This is not the end, it is not the beginning of the end…nor the end of the beginning, even! (Update – actually, it’s just the same old blog, but even more random!) Written on July 14, 2025 It is just Read more
Uncategorised
My Brachycephalic Lassie
Written on July 29, 2025 The Cactus House may or may not have had dogs living here before. The odds are that it has. The original inhabitant – Mr Cactus himself, might have had a mutt or two – although Read more