My Blog
My musings about the world, self publishing, living abroad, and my author career.
Finding balance
In January starry girl will turn four, and start school. This will be a big change for all of us, and I can't quite believe that it's got here so fast. These last few months with her at home for most of the time are, I'm sure, going to go by so fast. She can't wait...
Supermarkets
It's amazing how different supermarkets can be in different places. You'd think they'd be the same everywhere, but the French hypermarkets are a completely different world to Dutch smaller supermarkets, which can be only a bit bigger than corner shops. There at least...
Lunchbox notes
Before rocket boy started school I heard about the idea of lunchbox notes - where you pack a short note in with your child's lunchbox so they know that you're thinking of them during the day. I tried it out first with my husband, who was amused but still thought it...
Moving on up
Rocket boy has now made the transition to group three at his Dutch school. This is they year that it gets serious - he starts reading, writing and doing sums. He has his own desk and tray underneath for his things. Each child has been given a set of colouring...
Where is home?
We've now been in the Netherlands for over three years. The anniversary passed while we were on holiday in the UK in fact. Which made me think about how soon you lose the ties to places you used to live in. And how quickly you are bound to a new place. Walking round...
In search of a cream tea
Our summer holiday this year was a whirlwind tour around the UK visiting family, seeing friends and cramming in some British culture. It was lovely to see those we did meet up with, though a shame not to catch all those we missed. We saw castles, houses, gardens, and...
Writing progress
In February I wrote about how I was starting to write. And I'm pleased to say that I've continued. I've written at least 100 words every day this year. Some days much more than that. In total I've written over 65k words, 39k of which is on my main story. My novel is...
(Bijna) geslaagd!
I've got my Dutch exam results back and while I passed the reading, listening and writing parts I missed the speaking one by two points. I'm really gutted I was so close! So now I need to work out a time to re-take it. Many thanks to Kiki for all the help...
Homemade spinners
Rocket boy has been on at me for ages to get him a fidget spinner. Lots of the children in his class have them, some more than one. But I'm a bit wary of them as I've seen horror stories online about them falling apart, or children getting their fingers stuck in the...
Over ten years of blogging
I started my first wordpress blog in August 2007, so I'm now marking my tenth anniversary. Though I did have a different blog before that which has now disappeared. So I'm not sure exactly how long I have been blogging, but at least ten years. I've also encouraged...
Issues with my activity tracker
So I'm still using with my garmin activity tracker. The amount of running has decreased recently though. Maybe after the summer holidays I'll get back into that. And having used it for ten months now I've found a few issues with it. As it's on my arm so it's measuring...
Keeping connected
The more I read about bringing up children the more important I think it is to maintain a connection with them. In fact I made it one of my New Year's Resolutions. I am trying to be more conscious about where my focus is - to either be actively doing something with...