Ten years ago today…

  I WORE a suit. And I bullied my mother into wearing one too. I don’t know why, but I figured if it was going to be bad news it wouldn’t hurt to look smart. To look confident. To look like the type of people the doctor could take seriously. My mother was waiting in [...]

Mad for Cake

  EVERYTHING I know about cooking, I learned at my mother’s knee. Boiling, roasting, casseroles, pies, stews. How to handle and store raw meat, the necessity of fresh herbs and the most important rule of all – if something doesn’t work out, tell your guests it was supposed to taste like that. We’d come home [...]

The Curious Incident of the Towel Rail in the Daytime

  “SO then I said to her, that’s all very well and good, but… actually Mam, can this wait until I come downstairs?” “Grand yeah, I’ll just go down so,” her voice floated in, muffled, through the bathroom door. I dropped my head into my hands, ears ringing with blessed silence, savouring the few minutes [...]

Can’t live with them…

  THEY say the first year is the hardest. All the irritating little things that annoy you about your wife or husband come to the fore, you learn new, sometimes surprising, things about your partner and from time to time you have a few tiffs or arguments. All pretty normal as you settle in to [...]

Talking the talk

  I CAN’T do small talk. It’s just beyond me. I’m in awe of anyone who can do it for longer than two or three minutes. You stand there at a party, glass of warm wine or flat 7up clutched in your sweaty paw, grinning awkwardly at complete strangers, mumbling about the weather or the [...]

To sleep, perchance to dream

    I LOVE my bed. Love it now. It’s big and wide, King sized. Plenty of room for Yer Man and I to sleep without a millimetre of our bodies touching each other. I can’t sleep if someone is touching off me. I need space, lots and lots of space. And my lovely comfy, [...]

Julie, Julia and me

FOR Valentine’s Day my husband bought me a DVD of Julie & Julia, a gorgeous movie – adapted from two books – starring Meryl Streep as Julia Child, a well-known American cook, author and TV star. In the movie, blogger Julie Powell (played by Amy Adams) sets herself a challenge to cook and blog about [...]

I Heart You

PERSONALLY I blame the drugs. There’s no other excuse really. Why else would a reasonably sane, grown, intelligent woman buy heart-shaped cookie cutters, with no intention of making cookies, for Valentines Day? I must have been off my face. It was supposed to be a simple trip to the supermarket, to pick up a Valentine’s [...]

Sunday Night Blues

Brush teeth, fall into bed. Kiss husband goodnight. Settle back smugly against pillows and close eyes. Open eyes in panic, check alarm has been set. It has. Relax. Cast eye over clock. Great. Seven hours sleep. Close eyes again. Rub feet together to warm up. Muse on coldness of bathroom floor. Turn over into more [...]

Hungry like the Wolf

I THOUGHT about changing the name of this blog now that I’m married and no longer have to worry about the wedding dress, but then I thought, meh, I’m fat, I’m always beating myself into SOME sort of dress. So I’m leaving it. And on that note: When I was 25 I lasted four days [...]