Our son recently returned for a restorative stint at home, bringing with him the latest addition to our family, Sammy the cat, or “The Meister” as we have come to call him. He acquired Sammy during one of the COVID lockdowns last year when he was experiencing burnout. He was…

Once we meet our basic needs, everything else is surely a bonus? “Being in constant control of everything. The older we get the more we realize how little we actually control. And there’s no good reason to hold yourself down with things you can’t control. Learn to trust the journey…

I sat on this, my last post for 2021, for several weeks. Partly because I had struggled to write anything cohesive for some time, and partly because I couldn’t make it a “things I was grateful for in 2021” post to wrap up the year. I don’t think even the…

I’ve reached an age where I’m no longer expected to meet the ridiculous beauty standards set for women, which makes the Olympic speed with which I sprinted to the hairdressers at the end of our latest lockdown even more shameful. It confirmed my status as a bad feminist. I realise…

“Slow down, you move too fast,” the lyrics from Simon and Garfunkel’s Feelin’ Groovy struck a chord with me recently — sorry for the pun. …

Sometime over the past few years, I lost my spark, and even though I wasn’t sure if menopause or the medication I took for my anxiety were the culprits, or even the amount of time my husband and I had spent together in lockdown together, I was desperate to retrieve it. — Impatience and irrational outbursts of anger had become a big problem that were linked (I suspected) to menopause and poor sleep, hormone fuckery, the inability to control my body temperature, and my secret fears about the life-altering changes that lay ahead.

As I watched the Olympians strive to fulfil their dreams of gold in Tokyo, I couldn’t help wondering how many of them still struggle with self-doubt. My self-doubt is linked to my fear of rejection — the curse of many writers — and after more than a decade in the…

Don’t get me wrong, I love a good political debate, but not at the expense of respect. A friend of mine admitted recently that he will no longer attend social events if some loud-mouthed fuckwit — with whom he has crossed paths before — is on the guest list. I…

I caught up with an old friend recently, and when the conversation turned to the inevitable topic of menopause and weight gain, I was surprised to see her stroke and flaunt her belly proudly in my direction. When she told me she’s decided to embrace her menopause belly, I couldn’t help thinking how brave she is, in a society that celebrates youth and beauty over experience and wisdom — the reason many of us take some time to adapt to the physical and mental changes caused by…