Dear Coleen Nolan, diabetes is not my fault

Stupid questions your mum will ask about diabetes

Having to take insulin injections is not the worst thing about having diabetes. Having to prick your fingers before you can eat or exercise is probably worse than needing to inject a synthetic hormone into your body, but it’s not the worst thing about having diabetes. Working full time (and it is full-time) to keep blood sugars under control, and the sense of deflation when all that hard work doesn’t pay off, is one of the worst things about having diabetes. But it’s not the worst. Public misperception around diabetes is the worst thing about having the condition. I struggle with …

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I can’t dance (Red Nose Day Danceathon with Team Honk)

Wedding dance

As a child, I took dancing lessons. Latin, mostly, and I excelled at the Samba in particular. Let’s start that again, shall we? What I actually mean is that me and my block-heeled silver sandals made it through a few certificates before I hung up my sequins in favour of a ra-ra skirt and drainpipe jeans. The Human League didn’t do ballroom, so neither did I.  Of course, now that my daughter likes to watch Strictly, I pretend to her that I’ve been there and done that. In reality I did a bit of cha-cha-cha, stiffly partnered by some poor boy drafted in for the exams, …

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Travel: Food Inspired by our Travels

Crayfish starter #TasteofTravel

  Restaurant in Honfleur, France What’s the best part of a holiday for you? Lounging by the pool with a cocktail? Swimming in a perfect sea, on champagne sand? The spectacular view at the top of a canyon, or the rush of adrenalin as you ski down snow-capped peaks? I’ve been lucky enough to experience all of these, and more, and still have a bucket list I could never hope to complete. But you know what all of those pleasures have in common? Food. Whether it’s a thickly-buttered warm baguette, oozing strawberry jam, after a long hard day on the …

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What Santa said to the Tooth Fairy

What Santa said to the Tooth Fairy

I know we’re well into January now, and by rights I should be posting recipies involving brown rice, or decluttering tips. Heck, it’s even too late for New Year resolutions now! Which it just as well, because I didn’t make any… I’m terrifically tardy, but I’m going to bend your ear about Christmas, because really, this is one conversation I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to share. What Santa said to the Tooth Fairy Prologue A week before Christmas, the wobbly tooth began to feature. Apples and carrots were requested, not to store up for the reindeer, but to force …

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