Experience review: tile painting in Portugal

My quest to keep trying new things throughout 2023 continues! In October, I went on holiday to Portugal, and I tried one of my favourite new things yet whilst in Lisbon. Read on to find out more… Inspired by BBC’s Race Across the World…One of my favourite TV shows for the last few years has …

Book review: Under the Knife

This book is particularly special to me, because I’m proud to say that I supported it in a literal sense. Having struggled to find interest from traditional publishers, Liz chose to use Unbound (which, by the way, I highly recommend checking out – it’s crowdfunding for books; I’ve now supported two others via the platform …

Review: Happy High Status by Viv Groskop

Isn’t it funny how life works out? Almost five years ago, I was at a networking event, working on overcoming my fear of them. And someone I was becoming friends with recommended a different event they’d recently been to, part of a series which was happening due to our local Year of Culture. The events …

Reflections on Sarah Beeny vs Cancer

I recently watched the Channel 4 documentary Sarah Beeny vs Cancer (what is it with Channel 4 and cancer content in the summer?! I can’t quite believe it, but it’s been almost a year since Super Surgeons aired). I shared some thoughts live via social media, but having discussed it with a couple of other …

Medical advocacy: a beginner’s guide to the language of medicine

I’ve always considered myself fortunate that languages come naturally to me.  I studied French and German at school, and although I’m by no means fluent, the knowledge I gained over 20 years ago (eek!) works solidly with some practice.  That, in turn, has allowed me to pick up some Spanish and Italian in the last …

Marrakech: I finally made it!

As the world slowly locked down in March 2020, I watched a long-planned trip crumble away. One of my best friends and I (she’s Aussie and lives in Melbourne; we hadn’t seen each other for 18 months already) were due to go on a tour of Morocco together, before visiting Istanbul. Instead of wandering around …

Mindful self-compassion: my deep dive weekend

I can’t quite believe that I finally attended this course. Booked way back in the depths of 2019 (remember it? “PPE” was a term few of us used; vaccines were only hotly-debated for the under 12s; we thought nothing of violently exhaling over a burning cake that we were about to share…), and understandably postponed …