Typecast

Working online is a good way to earn money. The chances are there are millions of people out there who want the products and services you sell. Your client base is potentially huge, especially if you offer something like writing or design services. So, with a bit of time and effort earning an income online is often not that difficult. Most people who give it a go find that they can make a decent living, especially if they are working from home during a pandemic . Initially, finding well-paid work is tricky. But you soon get to know where to find good clients and provided you treat them well a lot of people will come back and use you repeatedly. Once you have found that work, you will of course need to make sure that you get paid as quickly as possible.  Make it as easy as possible for the person to pay you You need to ensure that it is easy for your clients to pay you for your service. The first step is to use something like this stripe accounting integration to get paid onli...

It's that time of year when I start mulling over which diary format is going to work best for me next year.  For the majority of this year I have used an  A6 size Hobonichi Techo with an yearly spread, a monthly section and a 'page on one day' for the main diary part.  And I started out with all good intentions but most of the diary has gone unused for obvious reasons. I have found out that I like space to plan ahead (birthdays, appointments, events) but I have noticed that I'm jotting down more reminders on post-it notes - not because my aged brain is forgetting things but more research notes for my weekly radio show.  First, a couple of recommendations.  These are old favourites that have been tried and tested and I hop in and out of from time to time.   1.  A Travellers Notebook system .  These are brilliant! It is generally a soft leather cover with elastic inside designed to hold multiple notebooks.  You choose which notebooks go i...

Finding gifts for family and friends this year is proving difficult due to the limited opportunities for browsing in shopping centres, so I'm turning to finding unusual and useful gifts online instead.  One of the nicest gifts I've found is a "hug in a box" that brings positivity to people's lives from PositiveParcel , especially as a survey has found that 40% of adults in the UK are concerned about their mental wellbeing ,  The parcel is full of handpicked treats to put a smile on your face, to encourage self-care and to spread positivity as we cope with the current lockdown and restrictions and very little sunny weather in these winter months. My box included a luxury candle, some Belgian chocolate, organic tea, some post-it notes, an adult colouring sheet, and a "Happy News" newspaper. This would be a perfect gift for a loved one, a friend or a neighbour - or anyone who needs their day brightening up.  PositiveParcel is donating a percentage of the p...

This year has been a funny one. It seemed to go from New Year, to Lockdown, then Uncertainty, Confusion and soon it’ll be Christmas. You probably still feel like it’s March, but Christmas is much closer than we’d like to think, and it's perhaps time to start thinking about it. Every year, when we sit down and write gift lists for our families and friends, there’s typically one person that we just don’t know what to buy. It’s often the same person, and it’s almost certainly a man .  Photo by  Jonathan Meyer  on Unsplash Perhaps it’s that men want less, or that they buy themselves the things that they want, without waiting for someone to gift them. But it doesn’t make it easier on the person doing their present shopping on Christmas eve, with no idea of what they are looking for.  But, even with these hard to shop for guys, there are a few things that generally you can’t go wrong with. Apologies in advance if you do buy one, and it is wrong. But the odds are good....

I haven't written about my running for a while because, well, there's been nothing much to talk about.  The "mixing of households" and the "rule of 6" has provided confusing guidelines for running in groups but I've been getting out on some socially distanced trail runs on Sunday mornings. Normally drop a couple of pictures on my Insta-brag, but this one was one that I really felt more people should know about.  The Tolkien Trail 10k is a race that I looked at last year but it clashed with another event.  The route takes in the Pendle countryside and leans heavily on the fact that JRR Tolkien regularly stayed in a guest house in the grounds belonging to Stonyhurst College during the time he was writing Lord Of The Rings.  So when looking up a route for this week I found the " true Tolkien Trail " map with a full set of directions and sights to look out for with additional information. Map downloaded, weather check done, meeting point arranged.....

When I went for my initial interview / introductory meeting at Ribble FM, I met the Studio Manager, Lee Roe. As we got chatting, we discovered that we were both licenced amateur radio operators and he knew my husband! I'm still not sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing... anyway...  Lee is the Station Manager at Ribble FM in Clitheroe and always been involved in music from working at Ames Records when he was 14 to DJ'ing, being in a band playing in pubs, and clubs and even a host/DJ in a cruise ship nightclub.  He tells me that music takes him everywhere, fixes many things and keeps him sane.   Lee is a very social person, loves being around people and having a giggle.  He has been a single dad for 21 years, is a self-confessed complete and utter lazy bastard foodie who cooks every day and loves making food for people to enjoy.  Music + Food = Life.  So now, it's over to Lee...  ¨¨°º©©º°¨¨ Tiger Feet - Mud This was the first 45' single I e...

There aren't many photos of me when my children were younger because I was always the one behind the camera, snapping those precious moments to look back on years down the line.  Film was expensive, developing another cost, and photos were taken the commemorate special occasions.  Now we have a camera on our mobile phone, almost everything we do can be captured for posterity and there are many more photos of me now that the 'selfie' has become popular.  There's a knack to taking the perfect selfie though.  Here are some tips that I'm sure even Kim Kardashian uses... • Have fun with your selfie.  Here's one I took last year where I tried to cram every single member of our running club into the one photo at the start line of the Manchester Half Marathon and another where I shouted " BRIDGE SELFIE " and my running gang just lined up perfectly.  • Angles are your friend.  Take pictures from many different angles until you find the one that is most flatteri...

  Since January, I have been presenting the Saturday morning lunch time show at Ribble FM - a community radio station in the Ribble Valley (in Lancashire).  I thought it would be a great idea to get to know a few of my fellow presenters by asking them to participate in Soundtrack To My Life.   The first victim presenter is Mark Blackman - a.k.a. "Blackers".  He wakes up the local area each day as host of the Ribble FM weekday Breakfast Show and looks after music and presentation at the station (his knowledge of popular music is astounding and it was fascinating to listen to him when he co-hosted the show with me as part his 12-hour presenting marathon for Ribble FM's 4th Birthday). Mark knew he wanted to be a DJ or presenter as early as being three years old!  He set up a mobile disco at the age of 13 with his friend Gary and honed his craft with local gigs and residencies until he left university in 2006 to pursue a full time career in radio, working at ...

You may or may not know that I love to crochet , knit and cross-stitch  but it's been a while since I completed any large project so when I saw that Aldi had brought out a "Creative Crafting" range I got quite excited.  Their complete project boxes were the perfect way to get back into what used to be my favourite hobby.  It's been available to order online or pick up in store from 20th September and I have been trying out the 'make your own bear' crochet kit and the 'hearts' 3D cross-stitch kit which are both available to buy for £3.99. The great thing about these kits is that the come complete with all materials and even the stuffing to finish off your project.  I'm in the middle of both projects so keep an eye on my Instagram to see the finished results.  I have a couple of recommendations for the kits that I tried though: The crochet bear kit is NOT for beginners as you have to work in 'rounds' and increase/decrease stitches as you g...

What can you do when you have just six hours in Amsterdam?  This was a plan we had to make recently as we booked a National Holidays mini-cruise to Amsterdam  but I've since found great deals on the Voyage Privé website.   We had no idea what to expect as we've only really been on caravan or holiday camp style holidays in the UK and package holidays abroad.  But the price was absolutely affordable (£99 each in July - yes, for the whole 3-day trip) and I'd booked it as part of a birthday present for my husband. I've included info about this at the end of this blog post  (this isn't a review - I hate having to say that but as a blogger... y'know) .  Because I knew we had such a limited amount of time in the city, I planned a few things to do and allowed time to wander round and soak up the atmosphere.  What I hadn't banked on was a freak, European-wide heatwave with temperatures reaching 36°C/99°F. Canal Boat Tour For our canal boa...

We have been looking for a used family car for a while now, and it is amazing how many places you can buy a used car. We did finally get a great deal, however, whilst going through this process we did learn some important things we thought we would share with you to ensure you avoid the pitfalls we nearly fell into  Getting the Right Car When we first started looking for a car, we started to look at what we liked, and not what we needed. When we started making a list of essential requirements the family car needed, it was clear the car we wanted was not right for our situation.  Therefore, before buying a car, make sure you create a list of your ‘must haves’ for you and your family. A great place to start is costs of running the vehicle, boot size, child seat fixing points and so on.  Before viewing or test driving a car? Speak to seller and get as much information about the car before you go on a viewing or test drive. This ensures you get the latest information about th...

I've recently been shopping around for new headphones to use both for running and personal use but really struggle with in-ear buds because they never feel secure enough.  That was, until I had the opportunity to try the EarFun Air True Wireless Earbuds . These earbuds are an affordable alternative to Apple's Airpods and are compatible with both iPhone and Android devices.  I'm totally guilty of leaving wireless headphones to run out of charge so to be able to put these in their charging case for 10 minutes for an extra 2 hours of play time was a total bonus for me (I just need to remember to keep the case charged up now...).  On a full charge they can last for up to 35 hours - 7 hours play time + 28 hours with the charging case. The earbud controls are touch sensitive for volume and playback control but are also fully workable when wearing just one earbud.  They are also fully sweat and waterproof and didn't budge when I was using them both walking and running....

Whether you are travelling by train to the English seaside or by plane to a remote location in Italy, keeping a bottle (or two) of hand sanitiser in your bag will be the best decision you’ll make. This will guarantee that you can easily clean your hands after touching germ hot-spots, such as door handles, lift buttons, tray tables and escalator handrails. As Ocean Free, hand sanitizer manufacturer , mentions on their website hand sanitiser kills 99.999% of bacteria and are also effective against viruses and germs. They supply travel-size hand sanitizer , as well as larger bottles to keep at home, in the office or to refill your portable hand sanitizer bottles. Even after covid testing  and vaccinations, one thing to keep in mind is that for hand sanitiser to be effective, you will have to use it properly.  The FDA recommends  rubbing “hand sanitizer all over your hands, making sure to get between your fingers and on the back of your hands.” Also, remember not to wipe or r...

So, back at the beginning of lockdown, I embarked on a fresh "couch to 5k" journey. I was running solo and wasn't all that keen so I tried to take the dog along and he hated it just as much as me, refusing point blank to run by week 3. I had a little moan about it and a few running friends said they felt the same - they wanted to kick-start their running again, missed group running and needed a way to 'buddy up' with someone. And so the "LOCKDOWN C25K" group was born. It was a small, but perfectly formed, group which was for those few running friends who needed an excuse to get out and wanted to be accountable for their runs, in a similar way to the structure of our community C25K group in Blackburn but away from their main Facebook timeline. This, however, wasn’t about being a brand new runner, or running in groups, or to have everyone running on the same day at the same time but about having a place to say “I DID IT” and know that if you couldn't b...