30 Days of Giving begins today! If you remember, I give a gift a day to make the run up to the Solstice. You can read more about it here https://borderinggrey.com/2023/11/21/30-days-of-giving/ Despite my love of giving, I am not good at receiving gifts. When faced with gifts (and that language says it all), when faced…
Do you ever feel like you are doing life wrong? Like you should be doing loads of stuff, but instead you are quietly just doing you? July started with a much-anticipated trip to Barry in South Wales. There to perform an extract of my work for Folding Rock magazine, I took the chance to catch…
The grandson came for the summer. Three weeks with an eight-year-old. I’m still bloody exhausted, but we squeezed every bit of joy from it. We are all geeks here. It’s wall-to-wall Star Wars, Star Trek, Harry Potter, (before she-who-must-not-be-named went off the deep end). We’ve had Pokémon, Magic the Gathering, Dungeons and Dragons, Disney, Witchy,…
‘Shall we go away for Christmas?’ the mister asks as we are sat in bed, psyching each other out over whose turn it is to get up and make more tea. For a moment I think he might have had a stroke. Does he think it is Christmas now? Dear god, is he actually planning…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XxARMi9ep8 At the time of writing this I have not watched the Disney re-boot of The Santa Clause. There is something a little scary about messing with a classic and I would say that all three The Santa Clause movies are up there as classics, even with all the weird 90s messaging about absent dads.…
Okay, I know today's movie is Love Actually, but I find that movie problematic in too many ways to go into today. I will conseed the scene when Emma Thompson realises the jewellery is not for her, breaks my cold heart a little, but the rest of the movie leaves me with a shudder, -…
I had a total crush on Danny Kaye when I was a kid,- another kind man. Combined with the perfect Christmas song, today's movie will warm even the most Bah Humbug! of souls. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QW65Amj0vM
Oh my heart, this movie! I was a weird kid. I found other kids impossible to understand and the constant threats from parents, who wanted me to 'go outside and play,' when I was perfectly happy reading or watching old movies, was unfathamable. Weekends were spent sneaking off to the Library, having lied that I…
It can't be Christmas without the Doctor. Oh my heart, in no paticular order here are some of my favourites. (and I know some of them are not strictly speaking Christmas Specials) https://youtu.be/BgVJDd5vHfw?si=BVHI93bePV-7q0iF https://youtu.be/9pG3XcazIys?si=R6Z9ayBcdj2Cis-1 https://youtu.be/Op7isR-5x0Q?list=PLKEzuOOEQvYNpUEdEJkhRmUwhfKT6LWUB https://youtu.be/s1cun-FULdk?list=PLKEzuOOEQvYORxF77FmLwBVoi0RyLpKPE https://youtu.be/2-zzmtGYL-4?list=PLKEzuOOEQvYORxF77FmLwBVoi0RyLpKPE https://youtu.be/a1pmF1PCisU?list=PLKEzuOOEQvYORxF77FmLwBVoi0RyLpKPE https://youtu.be/WJqE2onQUSk?list=PLKEzuOOEQvYORxF77FmLwBVoi0RyLpKPE https://youtu.be/5eVj_wrq8Kc?list=PLKEzuOOEQvYORxF77FmLwBVoi0RyLpKPE https://youtu.be/TWwYLlcPekA Apologies I just couldn't stop - I'd have added more but the dog needing…
Where to start? So many to choose from! Though I should say most of my choices are seriously old school, steeped in childhood memory or the memories of raising my kids. Are there any great 21st Century Christmas movies? Ok, I stand corrected.- Elf, Arthur Christmas, Polar Express. What is your Favourite Christmas movie.
OK, I know I did a post about Christmas movies last year, but bear with. Christmas is all about traditions. Christmas is all about those little family rituals that make the holidays special. There’s the advent calendars, and the cakes and the mince pies and Christmas is absolutely about movies. If you missed my post…
It's that time of year again. I can barely contain my excitement. My mind working overtime to come up with this years plan. I wrote to you last year about 30 days of giving. Don’t tell me you don’t remember! ‘The idea is to give a gift to someone every day for 30 days. It…
This is my last blog post for a while. I’m taking the summer off. The grandson is coming for a few weeks, and I’ve other writing I need to focus on, and books I need to read, and while I love hanging out with you on a Tuesday morning over a quickly grabbed coffee, we…
Pockets There is a thing that happens when your children are all grown up. Suddenly you have pockets. Pockets on coats, pockets in bags, pockets on jeans. It’s not that these pockets suddenly appear. It’s more that these pockets suddenly become yours. Let me explain, see when you have kids your pockets are always full…
Have you seen Brian, our pet dragon ? Hunting for dragons in the wilds of Wales.
All the fuss is over. The tree is down, and the kids are back to school. I’ve cleaned the living room – seriously how does the house get so dirty? And how do you not really notice it until you start to clean and then all you can see is filth? Sorry I digress. It…
Don't be missing from your family Photo's.
Sharing my love of Christmas TV
The fairy lights are on, there’s hot chocolate in my mug, a tin of roses on the sofa and Lebkuchen sitting daintily on a Christmas plate – with breakfast sorted it’s time to turn on a Christmas movie. Most of the year my early mornings take on a slightly different vibe, - walking the dog,…
Something about this time of year lends itself to exclamations – or is that just me? It is time to make the Christmas cake!!!! Facebook memories tells me I’m behind the curve, - in 2018 apparently, I’d time to crystalise oranges and lemons to make homemade German Lebkuchen. To be fair they were magnificent Lebkuchen…
I treated myself to one of those beauty advents boxes. In true working-class fashion, I need to tell you that I had a voucher, and there was a deal, so it hardly cost a thing – why do we do that? If someone compliments my dress I have to tell them that I got it…
Bordering Grey 