Mama Adventure

May 7, 2022

Misadventure: Catching a dog in a spy base

When I was eleven we got a dog. His breed was brown, white and waggly. He looked like a Jack Russell but he was the size of a labrador. And he needed a lot of walking. We lived on a bizarrely-designed council estate which had its front doors at the back and the back doors […]

May 6, 2022

Should you get your books translated?

I’ve pondered over this question back and forth for several years and I’m still not sure what the answer is. I’ve even reached out to translators who haven’t replied. It’s funny how people say they are looking for translation work and don’t know why they can’t get it, but when you actually contact them they […]

May 5, 2022

Weekly writing prompt: Game

Game the bird? Game the thing you play? Game the system? Game smell? What’s your interpretation? This week’s writing prompt challenge is “game”. Here’s how to take part: Write a post, including your 100-word response to the challenge, any words of explanation or inspiration you wish to share, and a link to this challenge page. […]

May 3, 2022

I hired a $5 ghostwriter via Fiverr. This is how it went…

Tl;dr: Badly. It went very badly. So I’ve been having a lot of joint issues lately. Worse than usual. I’m in the midst of a flare-up. This usually nixes me being able to write long, well-researched authority posts. So I thought I’d look on Fiverr to see if someone could help me write a couple […]

April 30, 2022

Misadventure: Shipwrecked

Where I grew up, there was a brook, which is something a bit bigger than a stream but smaller than a river. The brook was probably the most interesting thing about Cheadle. Its path spanned the town. It meandered through the fields between my concrete council estate and the next estate over (a decidedly upmarket, […]

April 28, 2022

Writing prompt challenge: Gate

I was driving home yesterday and saw a red gate amongst dozens of brown ones, and it got me thinking it would make a great story opener. The whole village was abuzz. A new scandal was in progress. This one was more exciting than the time Mrs. Foyle had accidentally hung her knickers to dry […]

April 27, 2022

China Glaze Update Day 5

Argh noooo it’s starting to chip! Sad times. I have to reiterate that this was just one layer (medium on the thumb and light on the finger) but there’s a huge chip on my thumb and the big strands of glitter on my finger have come off. So there you have it. 5 days before […]

April 27, 2022

Are your customers confused?

I go to a lot of soft play centres. A soft play centre is a place where children can play indoors. My son has a lot of energy so we go out a lot. Recently we went to a soft play I’d been looking forward to trying ever since we were buying our home 18 […]

April 26, 2022

China Glaze update day 4

So I’ve been photographing my China Glaze nails to find out how long the polish lasts. Here is day 4: As you can see it’s almost identical to yesterday. Since taking yesterday’s picture I had to fight my double buggy to get it on the roof of my car as the boot (trunk) was full […]

April 25, 2022

What is the hardest nail varnish? China Glaze days 1-3

I am SO tired of my nail varnish cracking from perfectly normal day-to-day activities like taking my baby and toddler to soft play, landscaping my garden, or wrestling our double buggy into the back of our VW Golf. I don’t think any of these are particularly out there and yet every nail varnish I try […]