The complexity of adult friendship

Making friends as an adult is so much harder than when you were able to just tell someone that you really like them and want them to be your best friend forever!

A trip to Shreks Adventure London

When I first heard about this attraction opening in 2015 I knew that I wanted to take FJ there, as she is a huge Shrek fan. Three years later and we finally made it there! DJ, CJ, FJ and I recently spent a weekend in London so a trip to Shrek's Adventure had to be included in our itinerary! 

Adventures at the dog park

My three boys like nothing more than a trip to our local dog park. I say local, but it is actually the only proper dog park which we have in our town and it is located at the opposite end of the town to where we live, so the boys do not get to go as often as they would like.

Our romantic weekend away without the kids

In September 2016 I managed to tick off number 31 from my 40 by 40 list, which was to go on a luxury romantic weekend away with DJ. 

5 tips to writing a great library based dissertation

Writing any type of dissertation can be a very daunting task and for me, I was absolutely terrified of the whole idea as I just felt that it was something that only really smart academics could achieve, so I had a battle with my mind before I had even started. Most dissertations require the student to conduct a research study and collect the data themselves, but for a social work degree, you can choose to either do the former or to undertake a library based dissertation which is what I chose to do.

Our family holiday to sunny Salou!

In the car on the way to
the airport!

On June 25th 2016 I managed to check off another of my 40 by 40 goals which was to take a family holiday back to Salou.

First-born leaves the nest!

I knew that one day my children would all leave home, but I didn't expect my oldest to leave home until she was at least thirty. She was always the child who did not want to grow up and she would always tell me that I would have to 'kick her out' as she was not going anywhere. Even when she started university she chose to go to our local one so that she did not have to move away from home. Then she met her boyfriend and fell in love and everything changed. 

Five lessons learned from being a mature student

Being nearly at the end of a full-time social work degree, I thought that I would share some advice from what I learnt during my experience, for anyone considering returning to study.

1) It is not too late!

I hear so many people say that they wish that they could have gone to uni, but it is too late for them now. It is never too late to invest in yourself and your future. Many people return to uni as mature students so you will not be alone, particularly if you are studying a subject like social work, where at least fifty percent of my year group were mature students. 

Introducing Prince

The story of how Prince joined the family is a bit different to our other two dogs. My oldest daughter LJ aged 20 begged me to let her buy a puppy of her own. I wasn't sure as we were happy with our two boys and I wondered if she would really take care of him like she was promising, but when she showed me this picture of him, my heart melted and I could not say no.

How I finally won my battle with nicotine and gave up smoking

On January 15th 2015 I finally managed to quit smoking for good, which meant that I could check off number 14 from my 40 by 40 list. 

I had my first cigarette in 1993 and little did I know back then, the stress and pain that decision would cause me! Back then, age 13, I truly believed that I would be able to choose when I smoked and that I would not become addicted and that it was a 'cool' thing to do. I wanted to fit in at school and it was not as well known back then as to the health risks of smoking.