My rambling blog posts!

  I could easily just have shared the above quote and saved typing up an entire blog post but where's the fun in that. I think there is much to be said about doing the right thing, kindness and helping others - I actively endorse this, I strongly believe kindness is one of the greatest traits any person can have.  However...a new trend seems to be on the rise where certain people only do kind deeds or the right thing when they can then brag about how kind they are, often accompanied by a selfie or video of themselves having just done the aforementioned good deed, etc. Where is there integrity!?  I'm lucky as I happen to know a lot of genuinely kind, helpful people. Indeed a load of them have helped me and my family more than they can ever know and I will always be eternally grateful to them. The one trait these thoroughly lovely friends have is that they never seek praise for their actions, in fact they never mention it because they are doing it for the purest of reasons ...

  Anybody who even remotely knows me knows that I love Christmas; the decorations, the songs, the films, the tv specials, the food, spending time with friends and family - the whole season is a joy to me... This year though, I have to be honest, has proven to be a bit problematic. Fear not, I am not going to be all curmudgeonly and scrooge-like nor am I doing a "woe is me" post, it's just been a bit more chaotic than usual. Admittedly I currently have covid so this has dampened my Christmas spirit significantly, (even more so after only just getting over a sickness bug - I rarely get ill so catching two bugs in the same year is unheard of!). I am currently lying in bed as I type this, coughing and spluttering with an aching body, aching sinuses, a headache from hell and a general feeling of "ick".  This chain of events has also hampered my usual routines and traditions; my 'Advent boards' (a Christmas advent calendar of sorts but with a large whiteboard ...