My Articles:
Babe…
I awoke with a snort, squinting into the early morning sunshine. It was already hot as hell. My mouth tasted like the bottom of last night’s ashtray. I tasted hard, gritty sand against my teeth. My tongue moved around, looking for moisture. I lay there, too weary and apathetic to move. I closed my eyes. Time passed. The sun got hotter. My scorched skin stretched tight over my face, feeling like it would blister and crack at any moment. I could hear the gentle lapping of waves on the sand nearby. My parched throat closed as I craved a long, cold drink of Tacise. Continue… »
To Blog or Not to Blog?
I have been meaning to start my own blog for over a year but kept procrastinating. Which blog publishing tool should I use? How do you start one? Should I get someone to design one for me? What should I write and how often? Who’s going to read it?
On and on, enough questions that ensured I never actually began. Then I saw a link to a blog about a Platform-Building Campaign for Writers. The deadline to enter was in two days time. Yikes! I didn’t even have a blog, let alone the need to raise its platform! But something inside me said that this would be a good thing to do.
So, at my husband’s suggestion I just clicked the sub-heading of ‘blogs’ in my gmail account. There were a number of different templates to choose from. I picked the one I liked the best and wham! I had a blog! It was literally as easy as that. I was so pissed off that it had taken me so long to do something so easy.
But, better late than never.
I entered the Campaign and it has been amazing. A massively steep learning curve but in the mere two weeks since I started my blog, I have gained over 49 followers and had 1,120 views! I am stunned. I have also met the most wonderful group of people, mostly writers, and am having a blast. Continue… »
Traveling Light
I have always loved travelling. It’s the packing I hate. What to take, what to leave behind? Will it be hot or cold, dry or rainy? Packing when I was single was bad enough, but when I had my first child it was horrific.
Looking back on my first trip abroad to Spain with my six month old daughter, I think I may possibly have been a little insane. (Okay, a lot.) Unable to persuade me that it really wasn’t sensible to pack everything but the kitchen sink, my husband had given up in a huff and gone to mow the garden, while I ran around the house like a mad thing, throwing one item after another into the five huge suitcases we were taking for a two week holiday. Yes, five cases! And the fifth bag, infamously known as ‘The Black Hole’, was massive. Not really a suitcase, more an extra-over-sized hold-all.
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Beware the Ophidiophobiac!
By WWarby
My husband is frightened of snakes. Not too unusual you might think, lots of people are frightened of snakes. But he is not just frightened, he is terrified of them. The official term for this is “Ophidiophobia,” not to be confused with “Oneirogmophobia,” which is the fear of wet dreams.
I knew he didn’t like them but I really didn’t think he was such a baby. Honestly, I don’t like spiders and here I am living in a place where there are scary Black Widows lurking in the garage, and the females eat their men-folk, for goodness sake! In fact, one even started crawling up my leg last week when we were spring cleaning and I didn’t make a fuss … well, actually I screamed blue murder. But then they ARE deadly.
One time we were driving out to the beach and my husband nearly drove into a ditch just because there was a snake on the road. What did he think it was going to do, jump up and attack him through the truck window! Continue… »
Trust and Gratitude
I have been on a spiritual path for some years now, and one of the things I have been learning recently is how to trust. Trust in a Higher Power, trust in the Universe, trust in myself.
Having gratitude has been an important factor in helping me to trust. Writing a gratitude list every day is supposed to be especially helpful. I say the list in my head rather than writing it down as I’m just too damn lazy! It doesn’t seem to matter though as I really feel like the magic is starting to work. Continue… »
Just Say No
Being a total people-pleaser all my life, the word “No” has hardly ever entered my vocabulary. I always thought it was better to say “Yes” to all the people in my life. I hadn’t understood until recently that I was actually being a bit of a martyr, rushing around doing what I thought were helpful tasks for other people and then being rather resentful when the recipients didn’t always gush with appreciation. I have come to realize I was actually being incredibly arrogant. Who was I to know what they wanted in the first place?
I am now making a conscious effort to stop worrying so much about other people and what they think of me, but old habits die hard. I did have a massive breakthrough the other day, however, when a friend from the UK came to stay. She was on a course in Los Angeles and said she would come and visit afterwards, although we had not arranged an exact day. I was on tenterhooks all week waiting for her call, but it was not until Friday at 5pm that she rang saying she was at LAX airport and about to buy a ticket to San Francisco, arriving at 9 pm, and could I come and collect her please!
A Crying Shame
I went to bed crying and I woke up crying. Why on earth was I so upset? The events of yesterday had triggered a huge emotional response in me.
I had woken up in a great mood, which just got better as the day wore on. The sun was shining and I jogged for the first time in ages. I worked for a bit. I had leisurely chats with friends back in England. I cooked a delicious meal which everyone enjoyed. I met a friend for a coffee and a catch up. I remember feeling so grateful and happy that all was well with my world.
Birth: What they don’t tell you!
When I became pregnant with my daughter, I was a front runner amongst my family and friends, so I had no clue what to expect. I have two sisters, the eldest of whom had sworn off having children and the youngest, being a Buddhist nun, was not likely to give me any support in this direction either.
Looking back now, I realize I had an effortless pregnancy, but at the time I was terrified about what was happening to my body and what the future held. I was in denial for quite awhile, until I went for my first scan.
There, on the screen in front of me, was this wriggly, maggot-like creature, which only looked sort of human. All I could think about was that film ‘Alien’ and the scene where it burst out of the woman’s stomach. Yuck!
As the birth date drew closer, I got fed up with lumbering around like a beached whale, not being able to bend over to pick something up, or put on my shoes. All I wanted was to get the little monster out of me. Continue… »
Valentine’s Surprise!
My first Valentine’s Day with my husband (or boyfriend, as he was at the time) was a rather strange affair. For starters, we were on the other side of the world from each other – he was in California and I was in the UK. With the time difference, it made it quite awkward as those eight hours can really screw with the romantic atmosphere!
We were communicating via webcam and Skype, but I thought I would make an extra effort for Valentine’s Day. So I spent ages having a shower, putting on make-up, getting dressed up in a skirt (and for those who know me, that is a rare occurrence!), even shaving my legs. Which was a bit daft as he could generally only see my top half on the webcam and certainly not in enough detail to tell if I’d got hairy legs. But I thought, what the hell, if it made me feel sexier then it was worth it.
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