Learning on the job

When labour with Peter was not progressing well, and I admitted defeat and asked for the epidural, the midwife warned me that it was a busy night and it would be a couple of hours’ wait before the anaesthetist would come. When he did show up, I really was delighted to see him. “It must be nice to have a job where people are so pleased when you arrive,” I told him. His name was Peter, which was not the reason our oldest is called Peter, but it did feel like confirmation and he

"You'll be with me, like a handprint on my heart." Elphaba sings to Glinda. I've been reflecting on 40 odd years of best friends and their impact on me (note, not BFFs, because I think life doesn't necessarily work like that - more like people come into our lives for seasons, and then sometimes circumstances move you apart again, and that's ok). Here are just some BFs worthy of celebration, and if "you scan the credits for your name and wonder why it's not there" it'll be mor

On cars, and specifically Fiestas, and how one has changed my life. My mum learnt to drive in a Fiesta and so when she passed her test she bought a Fiesta and has loyally stuck with the make, aided by the fact that my uncle worked for Ford and could get her a discount. So when I eventually passed my test, her advice to me was, "You could drive a Fiesta!" and I laughed and shared my husband's Astra. Although once a Year 7 boy told me out of nowhere, "You look a bit little in t

I got my first speeding ticket this week. I've emphasised the 'first' when I've mentioned it to people, to save face, and to make it...

"This is my granddaughter," my grandfather told him, "and she's brilliant!" "That's nice," I thought, my brain flicking to an ad about...

"No regrets" sang Robbie Williams. "Funny," I thought, singing along to the CD, "I have plenty of them." Unwise impulsive choices and...

I'm coming to the end of my third teaching job, and weirdly starting to get excited about the leaving speech. For French A-level, we...

I’m a Northerner living in the South, and I find accents really interesting. When I first moved to Cambridge, I was living in a college...

On Monday 15th April, I sat down at the teacher's desk in my new classroom at my new school to log on to a school computer for the first...

We recently visited a friend whose home was full of animals. No exaggeration. Five tortoises, six cats, dogs, rabbits, fish, frogspawn......

I'm writing this in bed, sipping tepid drinks through a straw and trying to keep my head still, following a wisdom tooth extraction...

Matilda-like, I spent a good deal of a fairly solitary childhood visiting the local library, which is probably why I ended up with my...

To dye or not to dye? That’s the question I ask myself as I stare at the bottle of ‘L’Oreal’ brown hair dye on the bathroom shelf, then...

Thus began last night’s church meeting. We’re a funny motley bunch of different nationalities and ages and stages, meeting in a nursery...

It is not surprising given that I am someone who is often dashing off to the next thing, that sometimes things get lost along the way....

I’ve gone back to ballet! After a gap of a decade, it’s mostly all still there in the muscle memory, which is quite nice and reassuring....

Tonight was pretty exciting for me - I got interviewed for an event at church. I was more anxious than you might expect for an extrovert...

I remember the first time I fainted. I felt inordinately proud of myself afterwards, like I had fulfilled a childhood fantasy of being...

Yesterday at church, we learned about and prayed for persecuted believers around the world, as part of IDOP (the International Day of...

We’re coming to the end of a lovely half-term, just back from visiting my mum for a few days. One son was a bit sad because he missed out...