Turning forty seems to be like one of those moments in a story, where the heroine is choosing her path and there is a big door with words inscribed in Latin above “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here”.  Warning her, in no uncertain terms that just by entering, she will cast herself into what could possibly be the worst of damnations ( Read more... )

I never had the best relationship with my mother ( Read more... )

"Let me tell you that I love you, that I think about you all the time, Caledonia you're calling me, now I'm going home"

What follows is a tale of a place that I know inside and out, and yet keep on learning about.  To try and share this fully I have dotted in a few hyperlinks that will help me tell the story of where I come from :)
~*~
In Scotland, ( Read more... )

They called him Mop ( Read more... )

Glasgow 1958The door slammed behind him, the sound loud and jarring as it shook the paper thin walls of their single end.  Storming down the stairs and into the street, his nose scrunched up automatically as the smells of Glasgow hit him.  He had been here for nearly ten years now, stepping off the boat, then bus, full of hopes and dreams.  Leaving ( Read more... )

I met Vivien on a miserable cold autumn morning in Glasgow in 2011. At the time, I was freelancing and doing some digital marketing for events and had been recommended to her, so she had called and left a message with my receptionist (my mum) requesting a meetup.

‘Are you coming down for dinner, I’m making curry, oh and ive got a work message for ( Read more... )

We call it something different here in Scotland.  When we experience that random shiver, our mams would tell us someone is dancing on your grave.  That always seemed incongruous to me.  Why was someone in a graveyard dancing on the spot that I would one day lie! And why were they doing it at such odd times, didn’t they know the soaps were on?

( Read more... )

“Someone needs to put her in her place”

“I saw her brazen as you like handing out leaflets”

“Up to her husband to bring her into line, nothing a sharp word wont call halt to”

William had heard all the scandalised whispers.  Had nodded and uh huhed along to the words, even though he felt bad.  Not that he didn’t agree with them.  But ( Read more... )

I tell myself not to look.  The hallway is filled with people.  There are muffled sobs and whispers alongside the shuffling of feet.  The smell of the flowers still lingering in the hall are dying off with the closed sitting room door.  There are a mass of flowers in there waiting to be moved, but the door has been closed to stop the children from ( Read more... )

Comfort Eating, it sounds fun doesn’t it?.  Two of my favourite things are being comfortable and eating.  But together they are a recipe for disaster.  I have a cousin who growing up was pleasantly plump.  Then she turned sixteen, exams hit and the stress caused her to lose forty pounds.  Since then she has never gone over 100lbs.  It’s like she ( Read more... )