Category: Home
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School Holidays And Thinking About Wine A Lot
The Joys of Cooking by Bucky Schwarz found on http://www.flickr.com Now I’m not one to complain (!), but IT IS week four of both school holidays and the old man’s annual holiday from work. And my living area appears to have been redistributed to accommodate that surplus of testosterone and morphed into a man shed.…
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Road Tripping Dysfunctional Family-Style – Moments In Time
Moments. Life is about experiencing ‘moments’ in time, but even more importantly, it’s about being able to recognize them as precious moments and to fully appreciate them for what they are. Even the simplest moments. Such as the first time someone you cared about told you how much they loved you, or the first time…
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Middle Aged Stress: How Do You Escape?
I have this disease where I think that each day has thirty-six hours for me to fill, and I cram too much into them to handle and so I never relax. Then I become a bitter and twisted dragon lady at home. http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/aog73940 And I have a tendency to moan about how busy my life…
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The Family Crazy
In my early teens, I used to lose myself in television shows like Little House On The Prairie and The Waltons. Those television shows encapsulated the idea of the utopian family for me. They represented proper families, something I aspired to have more than anything else, when I grew up. http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/52434112 I craved the ‘happy ever after’…
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Do You Still Seek Your Parents Approval In Middle Age?
When you make the decision to migrate to the other side of the world like I have, your relationship with your parents inevitably changes. #148466028 / gettyimages.com My dad and I never shared what you would describe as a conventional relationship. He was twenty years old when he had me and at the time was…
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Confessions Of The Worst Housewife
It’s been a hellish week at work so I’ve tried that strategy I used to use on the kids when they were toddlers, of ‘ignore them and they might just go away’, but the overflowing laundry basket is particularly persistent at drawing attention to itself and refuses to play ball – which makes me THE…
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KPIs For Father’s Day
Father’s Day is only days away and this year the kids have decided to do something a little different. The old man has everything he needs and so this year they have come up with the novel idea that his special day is focused on self-improvement. They have identified several ways in which they believe he could improve…
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Those ‘What’s It All About?’ Moments
I had a completely self-absorbed and quite exhausting ‘what’s it all about?’ moment in the car on the way to work this morning. I am prone to over-thinking about absolutely nothing, as I’ve mentioned a few gazillion times before in my blog. In my defence, it WAS Monday morning, I hadn’t had my coffee and…
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Overworked And Underpaid: Ever Feel Like Your Family’s Personal Assistant?
I work hard, and sometimes I feel overworked, underpaid and under-valued at home. Chris Overworked by Ferrell McCollough at http://www.flickr.com I spend three days of my week doing paid work – I work from home (and as such my job is not truly considered a ‘proper’ job by my family, even though my salary is…
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Home Is Where The Heart Is…
Cup of Coffee with Spices (Photo credit: Wikipedia) It was a good holiday… if you discount the cabin fever, the ludicrous amount of snow that made snowploughing quite awkward at times and the combination of early mornings and alcohol. Note to self for the umpteenth time: Baileys and wine DO NOT MIX. But it was…
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The Birth Of Besta: Because NOTHING brings a family closer together than Ikea
Nothing brings a family closer together than Ikea. English: Logo of Ikea. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) I’ve written about the influence of the Ikea family culture and their methodology on our dysfunctional family before. And in the grand scheme of life and other shit, I DO REALISE that a small cupboard with doors that don’t close…
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14 Of The Best Moving House Tips
Although an oven may state that it is ‘self-cleaning’, that’s a lie! It does not self-clean as you use it, so allow three days for cleaning deeply engrained brown shit. Do not assume that removalists possess any spatial awareness or can see even those walls directly in front of them. Be careful not to pack…
LOUISA SIMMONDS 