When I became a freelance writer, I had no idea what to expect. I wasn’t someone who had planned for years to become a freelancer. I had taken redundancy the previous summer and decided I wanted to do something which involved two of my biggest passions – writing and helping others. Since then, my freelance…
Tag: Friends
Making New Friends and Returning to Some Kind of Normality
As I write this week’s blog post, I’m sitting outside my parent’s house in Northamptonshire, soaking up the sun, which has decided to grace us with its presence during the past week. May was a much colder, wetter month than I think any of us had hoped, although it didn’t stop me from getting out…
Chocolate Memories
This post was originally published on 16th November 2019 and updated on 28th March 2021. Chocolate brownies fill me with mixed emotions. Whether I’m baking them or simply eating them, they fill me with a mixture of happiness and overwhelming sadness. My best friend was the absolute queen of baking brownies. No-one else’s could ever…
Love or Loyalty?
As it’s Valentines Day today, I thought I would re-visit one of my favourite blog posts. This subject really got me thinking, and it certainly caused some interesting debate in our office at the time. This post was originally published on 28th March 2019 and updated on 14th February 2021. Have you ever stopped to…
What will Happen to the Music Industry?
We’ve made it through another week, and hopefully, we find ourselves one week closer to the end of this bloody pandemic. This past week, I’ve found myself missing live music far more than I have done throughout the entire pandemic. I suspect the main reason for feeling like this is down to being in a…
My Top 5 Ways To Survive Lockdown – Take 2
Following last night’s announcement that we will be going back into lockdown from Thursday, it got me thinking about how we’re all going to get through the next 4 weeks without going stir crazy! Quite frankly, I’m done with this virus. It’s destroying lives, people’s mental health, our economy, and there are people losing their…
Friendship
This post was originally published on 6th October 2018 and updated on 9th August 2020. I’ve been thinking a lot about friendship lately and what it means to me. I don’t have a large circle of friends, more pockets of friends whom I’ve met at different stages in my life. There are those I’ve known…
Goa, Mumbai, London – Days 14 to 16
This blog post is a particularly special one for me. Not only does it bring me to the end of my diary reflecting back on my first trip to Asia, and more specifically to India, it’s also time to celebrate, as this is my 100th blog post since the journey of The Mindful Musings of…
Goa – Day 13
Another night, another overnight train adventure Before arriving in Goa, it was time to embark on another overnight train journey. We were slightly better prepared for this one, and travelled in much more comfortable clothes. Our taxis also managed to pull up right next to the station, so there would be no walking across the…
Life after a Global Pandemic
With some countries across the world starting to loosen their lockdown restrictions, I’ve been starting to think about what life might be like post pandemic. Has this lockdown really gone on for long enough for people to make permanent changes to their everyday lives? How easy will it be for us to just slip back into ‘normal’ life? The…
Udaipur – Day 8
Tensions Rising Day 8 – New Years Eve. What should’ve been a fantastic end to 2019, instead, marked the day that cracks started to show within our group. I guess when you have 14 people travelling together for a considerable period of time, with varying amounts of sleep, sickness, and enjoyment, it’s only a matter…
Delhi – Day 1
Arrival Day I arrived in Delhi on the morning of Christmas Eve after an 8.5 hour flight from London Heathrow with Virgin Atlantic. Whilst I had booked the trip through Intrepid Travel, flights were not included, so I took the opportunity to experience Virgin Atlantic for the first time, as my last little piece of…
Looking back at 2019
Does anyone else keep forgetting we’re not only heading into a new year, but a new decade too? I considered looking back at the last decade in this post, but I’m looking forward to drawing a line under it and moving on into the new decade with a fresh perspective, embracing new opportunities and living…
Trust, Honesty and Lessons Learnt
Earlier this year, I shared some information with someone whom at the time, I thought I could trust. Someone I classed as a good friend. It turns out I was wrong on both accounts. As with so many things in life, I learnt the hard way. Not only did this make me question who I…
Green Fingered Gingernut
I first fell in love with gardening when I moved into my first house. I was in my mid 20s, with my first mortgage, and my very own back garden. And it was awful. With the neighbours conifer trees blocking out all signs of sunlight, and the stickiest clay soil I had ever tried to…
Mental Health Awareness Week
I’ve been thinking about mental health a lot this week. Particularly apt due to it being mental health awareness week. Everywhere I’ve turned there have been reminders about looking after our mental health. Social media has been full of interesting quotes and articles, and celebrities as well as us ‘normal’ folk have been talking about…
Is self care easier if you’re single?
A few weeks ago, I attended a friends hen party. The hen party was fun. But something was troubling me. I was staying in a hotel that night with another friend. While we were busy getting ready for the hen party, she started pouring her heart out to me. It appeared that her marriage was…
Wedding Season
It’s been a good few years since I last went to a wedding. They can be a bit like buses. You wait ages for one and then two come along at once! This spring, two of my closest friends are getting married to their respective partners. Whilst I have been looking forward to their weddings…
Reprioritisation
Do you ever find yourself caught up in life and realise that you’ve not quite got your priorities right? Life has been busy lately. In fact, since the new year, life has been pretty mental. Finding time to relax in the evenings and at weekends has been near on impossible, especially since my trip to…
Positivity
Have you ever stopped to consider why you attract negative people into your life? I have to admit, it’s something I have often made a habit of. Not on purpose of course. But time and time again, I would find myself attracting friends and partners who were negative and needy. No matter how hard I…
Knife crime, dirty laundry, and self care
The last couple of weeks have made me realise just how important it is to have a self care bank. If I hadn’t been able to cash in on some of my self care reserves, I definitely wouldn’t have got through it as well as I have. Most of the drama that has unfolded, has…
Signing out of 2018
Well here we are, New Years Eve 2018. The last year has once again been full of highs and lows. There have been losses, heartache, a lot of soul searching, and a lot of self discovery. I may not be where I thought I would be at the beginning of 2018, but I sure know…
New Year, New Goals
It’s that time of year again when we take time to look back at the last 12 months and to look forward to the next. I reflected on much of the last 12 months in a blog I wrote earlier this month called Turning 35, so now it’s time to focus on the next 12 months. I’m not…
As one chapter comes to an end, another begins
I feel kinda weird writing this post, but wanted to explain my absence over the last few weeks. It’s been hard to find the right words so as not to cause any further hurt, but at the same time, since I started my blog, I have found it a really useful platform in dealing with…
2019 – I’m coming for you
After months of waiting, we’re entering into the week of the dreaded Visa Appeal. I feel like the last year has been focused on this moment. And now it’s here, I’m not sure how I feel. Going through the application process was hard enough. Finding out the application had been rejected was tough. But the…
The Mindful Gingernut 