One of the joys of looking after the home of an ancient relative is being able to poke around in the kitchen and other cupboards – during those quiet moments when attention is not needed in the sick room. . . . . Whilst we were preparing for said relative Read more…
I always need to have a pointer towards the perfect gift for anyone. I find it extremely difficult to just look through a store and find exactly the right thing. It used to drive me mad years ago. Hours and hours of frustrated meandering up and down the aisles of Read more…
How times have changed – I was talking with a group of rather senior ladies last week, we were at a fund raising event in the nearest big town. We being of the country set, don’t you know . . . were discussing the lack of proper department stores in Read more…
It was a wonder sometimes how I managed to get through the year and suddenly it was christmas . . . panic hit me and I’d go round in a wild frenzy of grab and snatch present buying. This seemed to be the pattern for everything I dealt with in Read more…
When you have several celebratory activities in a month it can be bewildering, especially if you overspent during the christmas period and are still adjusting the budget! The best way to ensure you control things is to make a proper list, starting with your favourite address book, check out each Read more…
I am always ina quandry at Christmas and other major present buying times of the year. I let the event overwhelm me, worrying about who might like this or that, and did I get a simlar thing before. . etc. It has been the bane of my adult life – Read more…
A young couple I know are in the middle of house exchange – having sold their delighful and much loved starter home of extremely modes proportion, they are making their way up the mortgage ladder to a bigger, stone conversion offering much bigger rooms. This is all very exciting but Read more…
Chatting this morning to the kiddies who live next door – I discover they’d just returned from their ‘main’ summer holiday – a week’s all inclusive in Ibiza. Apparently they’re expecting to go away again before the beginning of the next school term. The kiddies were highly excited and said Read more…
It has always been a bit of a dilemma to me whether to give household items, for example, dinnerware or kitchenalia, as christmas and birthday presents. My own mother was absoltely anti such a practice and I can remember the look of thunder on her face when poor old dad Read more…
Oh how we partied recently. A relatives was having a shin-dig to celebrate a milestone birthday – the one between 20 and 40. She’s not a party animal by any stretch of the imagination, and I was amazed when she consented to her partner getting one organised for her. However, Read more…