How to go fishing for dates….

Chance is always powerful. Let your hook always be cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be fish. Ovid I love random encounters with people. I’ll often give more credence to an opinion expressed by a randomer I’ve just met than members of my own family. So it was a few …

How not to go on a date…

I love the smoke shelters on nights out. I always end up chatting to interesting people out there. It’s where the best conversations happen. A few months ago I ended up chatting to a guy on a night out who had a Black Jack vape, it was like smoking sweeties. I’m not a smoker, but …

How to create a soundtrack for your new life….

One good thing about music. When it hits you, you feel no pain. Bob Marley It’s taken a lot of bottle for me to reboot my life. To walk away from a house I’d lived in for 20 years, as well as its contents, and to leave my husband of 10, not to mention agreeing …

How not to live a life of quiet desperation…

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. Henry David Thoreau Until last summer I was a grey opaque version of myself. Worn into transparency by years of living with a joyless husband, anxiety, occasional depression and six year’s worth of lie-ins to catch up on. I felt old, tired and brittle, like a …

How to make memories…

Summertime is always the best of what might be. Charles Bowden The summer months always seem to be when I come alive and feel zingy – but this year was my first ever single summer for 30 years. I’ve been a serial monogamist all my life – going from boyfriend to boyfriend, but this year …

How to fall out of love…

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. Søren Kierkegaard I’m not sure when I first realised that I no longer loved my husband. It may have been last summer when I first articulated the phrase to my boss and the words that had been swirling round in my mind came …

How I came to be a part-time mummy

Don’t worry that children never listen to you, worry that they are always watching you. Robert Fulghum Of course, I’m not actually a part-time mummy. Once you give birth you are connected to the small person you’ve birthed 24/7. What I am is a mummy to a six-year-old whose father I have separated from. So …