Volunteering for Blue Bear is my joy, but it’s not my job. I earn my living working as a security consultant which occasionally requires me to travel up and down the country, often staying in mid-level, business-type hotels. I quite enjoy it. It’s nice to have a pyramid of folded white towels waiting in your …
For some, Christmas is an unwelcome fuss of awkward work parties and uncomfortable family get-togethers, for others, it’s the mince pie-eating, mistletoe-smooching highlight of the year. I think Christmas should give us all something to look forward to, a glow of colour and sparkle of glitter in the deep darkness of mid-winter. A halftime break …
Amazing wasn’t it!? Wembley stadium housed a capacity crowd last night to watch England’s Lionesses defeat Germany in the Women’s European Championship Final. It was spectacular! The whole event was more than a sporting competition but a celebration of freedom, equality, and progress. Rather than larger louts swinging punches at each other, both sets of …
It’s hard to talk of hope at times like these. It feels insincere, shallow, a little offensive even. After twenty years of fighting the Taliban, UK and US forces withdraw and, in doing so, surrender the advances made in Afghan human rights and democracy to a fundamentalist group that rules through fear and violence. Haiti, …
I spent the past three months of lockdown living by the sea. Each day, come rain, wind, or snow, I’ve taken my coffee down to the beach for a morning stroll to clear my head, make space for the new day and watch the waves roll in and roll out. There’s something about the constancy …
I was recently asked to record a 1-minute acceptance speech for an online award ceremony. Sadly, it was made clear to me that this was a requirement made of each of the five nominees and couldn’t be taken as an indication of future glory. I found it surprisingly difficult to pen the 60-second epilogue which stood an …
Clothes horses and ironing boards. I’ve always thought that would make a good title for my autobiography, if I ever write one. I must have purchased at least eleven of them! Not because I am particularly fond of these household items, but rather due to the fact that they’re both awkwardly sized and relatively inexpensive, …
Christmas is going to be a little different this year. Quite unlike any other in our lifetime, I would hasten to suggest. This Christmas, in a scenario stranger than fiction, we have been forewarned by our governments where we can shop, how far we can travel and who we can and can’t hug, all in …
I was once admonished by a Business Coach for my frequent use of the word ‘can’t’ during one of our sessions. “Remove it from your vocabulary!”, I was told. “There is no cant. You simply choose to or choose not to.” Can’t had become the default answer to any uncomfortable challenge that was put my way. “I can’t …
I chose to study Religious Education as one of my GCSE’s at high school, partly because I liked the kind, motherly nature of Mrs Stewart, but mainly because I knew it was one of my best chances of getting an A. And I was right. I can’t say, however, that I remember much from that …
It’s my birthday this week and I am turning 34. 34! It’s funny isn’t it, you spend most of your childhood wanting to be older, to be allowed on the bigger ride at the theme park, to watch a higher age movie at the cinema, to learn to drive, to get served in a pub, …
