My youngest child (the 6’5″ one) is off to university and it’s going to be the end of an era for me. My last baby to leave the nest (temporarily I hope) before coming back to live at home for a few years whilst getting his foot on the ladder […]
I’ve been home alone for over a week now and I’ve been having terrible FOMO. My children are all on holiday with their dad, step family and partners and I’m missing them. You’d think it would have disappeared by now, that feeling I get when my children are away. On […]
It is outrageous that David Cameron is trying to promote his book during our unprecedented constitutional crisis. Yesterday there was an advert for David Cameron’s new book “For The Record” in The Times, sitting on the Comment page underneath a long article about Boris’s ruthless conduct of government. WHY WOULD […]
One of the advantages (and there were many) of my month long stay in the Dordogne this summer was that we managed to sample more than enough of the delicious local wine. Most of the restaurants and bars in the region support the local wineries, so if you took a […]
Anyone else appreciate the perverse irony of Boris Johnson sacking Winston Churchill’s grandson in his aggressive approach to secure a snap election? Boris wrote a book on “The Churchill Factor” whilst he was Mayor of London, celebrating the singular brilliance and genius of one of the most important leaders of […]
It’s all very well that the education secretary has told head teachers that they will have the government’s full backing if they expel or suspend badly behaved pupils from their schools, but what are they putting in place to support the “badly behaved” pupils? Yes, they have to consider high […]
WHO in their right mind would actually pay good money to spend up to a year enduring one of the toughest challenges on the planet? The Clipper Race enables anyone, with dedication, enthusiasm, some training (and possibly quite a lot of madness and a death wish) to become an ocean […]
STAB VESTS AND SELF HATRED – WELCOME TO THE STORE OF MODERN CHILDHOOD I went into “The Store of Modern Childhood” yesterday – an incredibly thought provoking and hard-hitting immersive installation that has been commissioned by The Children’s Society, a national charity that works with the country’s most vulnerable children […]
According to a new study by Canadian researchers, less than one in ten British teenagers meet the recommended guidelines for sleep, exercise and screen times. Apparently children between the ages of 5 and 17 should spend an hour a day doing moderate to vigorous exercise, a maximum of two hours […]
I have come back from a carefree month away where I chose not to pick up a newspaper or watch the news, to the predictable ongoing shit show. I can no longer stick my fingers in my ears and shout “la la la”. It’s just so depressing to be looking […]
A month in the Dordogne was just the tonic I needed to step away from my life for a minute and reboot. To be honest, it was more fill my boots than reboot – with rosè, coffee, figs, cheese, croissants, chocolatines, baguettes, tomatoes, tapenade and the rest.
We did a little road trip down to the South Of France from the Dordogne, stopping of in Carcassonne to spend the night. The Cité de Carcassonne in France is an outstanding example of a medieval fortified town and well worth a visit. Despite perhaps relying a little too heavily on tourism these days – the old area is very busy and commercial, if you have any children with a penchant for waving a wooden sword about and donning a tabard, then this is the place for you.
