Author Archives: alisongardiner1

Watching the Winter Olympics has proved to be an efficient way of working out which sports I will never play. Flinging myself headfirst down a narrow ice tube at 80 mph on a tin tea tray somehow doesn’t cut it. … Continue reading →

This week I had a go at glassblowing at Stuart Wiltshire Glass in Weymouth: completely perfect on a cold English day to be cuddled up near a warm furnace or three. I thought that I’d probably have a natural advantage … Continue reading →

My husband has just had his second hip replaced, ending his foray into surgery as he’s run out of available hips. Well, more accurately, limped out of available hips. After the operation, they said that if he could walk and … Continue reading →

My daughter was asked to write a sonnet for homework. I hereby discovered that I am not entirely cut out to write deep and meaningful stuff. My mind is inevitably drawn to the trite. It’s wot I write. She was … Continue reading →

I love the fact that something can happen recurrently and each time it happens we are surprised. This happens with English weather. Every year there are leaves on the railway lines in autumn, then snow, causing cancellations or delays. Every … Continue reading →

Until recently I had believed that our cat was monochrome. Black, jet, ebony, deep beetle; call it what you will. Not a hint of tabby, nor even one shade of grey. However, viewing him recently, basking on the window sill, … Continue reading →

Okay, now I’m feeling Christmassy. Not so up til now, despite ordering turkey, buying presents, wrestling with wrapping paper and sending out roughly 200 cards. Yes, 200. I really should cross off Persephone who we met in Majorca 16 years … Continue reading →

  Attending an intermediate life-support training day yesterday made me feel somewhat better that I was no longer ‘basic’, although it made me hanker for ‘advanced’. Yet to achieve this upper level I would have to spend two days attempting … Continue reading →

Turkey: land of dreams, history, honey, pistachios and, as it turns out, wasps and volleyball. We have just spent a week there basking in warmth, also smugness that there were storms at home. My worry that the house might now … Continue reading →

Last night I attended an agents’ party kindly organised by the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, British Isles. I love SCBWI_BI and think it’s a completely fabulous organisation, but do wish they’d chosen their acronym to reflect less … Continue reading →