Typecast

I'm seriously loving seeing a few of the old school blogging 'tags' doing the rounds again so I jumped on the opportunity to join in a music one as it really fits in with my irregular Soundtrack To My Life series. This prompt comes from Samantha who blogs at Hampshire Mama and it reminded me of a couple of posts that I'd done WAA-AAA-AAAY back in the day (see here and here ) where you put your music library on "shuffle" and see what comes up. I'm pretty mainstream "pop" with my music choices So here is my 2018 version, via my Spotify account... FYI, I have a playlist on Spotify which is linked to my Shazam account - it's my favourite playlist because it's so random, so I'm using that today. ¨¨°º©©º°¨¨ 1. Outta Love - Anastasia A good song to start - and it has a pretty decent video to go with it.  And I can't be the only person who wishes they looked like Anastacia in that little red outfit, surely?  When...

I’ve known so many people with a cancer diagnosis. Some have made it through, some haven’t. In fact, three out of four of us will see a close friend or family member diagnosed with cancer - and you need to be prepared to know what to do to support a loved one, and those around them. Here are a few things you can put in place for your family member or friend if they are diagnosed with cancer. Complementary therapy We have the best care available here in the UK but complementary therapies can be rewarding for the mind, body and soul which is just as important when trying to stay strong to fight the battle. Therapies such as acupuncture, massage therapy, nutritional counseling, yoga, fitness programs, self-hypnosis, guided imagery and meditation can help patients cope with the symptoms of cancer, cancer treatment and its side effects. Many cancer treatment programmes now offer complementary therapies but it has to be understand that these therapies do not cure cancer ...

Image Credit There is no denying that remote work has become exceptionally popular over the past few years. The benefits associated with this are obvious. It presents people with greater flexibility when it comes to their working life and more comfort too. However, there is no denying that some job roles simply cannot be conducted from within the comfort of your own property. After all, it’s not like you could ask your construction boss to work from your house, is it? But what about leadership roles? Can leaders work from home? Yes, leadership roles can be performed remotely As a leader, you are going to be working closely with a lot of people at the business you work for. This leads a lot of people to assume that you cannot work remotely. However, this is not the case. Yes, you do need to be face-to-face with people at times, so your job cannot be 100 per cent remote. Nevertheless, there are going to be plenty of times whereby using tech to communicate will be more than suffici...

...and maybe some things I learnt in April, May and June too because it's been a hella long time since I wrote one of these blog posts.  But what I do is collect little articles I find and thoughts that have and when I get ten minutes to myself I try and pull them together into a half decent blog post.  So here's a few things that interested me and I hope they interest you too! ¨¨°º©©º°¨¨ If I lived on Mars I'd only be 24 years old but if I lived on Venus I would be 79 years old. This cute little sub-website from Go Compare gives you a number of facts and figures about planet Earth since you were born.  Give it a try ! I fell in love with Lady Gaga's version of Your Song from the album, Revamp , which reimagines the songs of Elton John and Bernie Taupin.  But when I shared it on Twitter, my friend  Toni sent me this article about why we tend to sing in an American accent because she thought Gaga sounded as though she was putting on a B...

If my Soundtrack To My Life series was building up to anything, it was probably going to be this blog post.  The album compilation series, Now That's What I Call Music, has reached it's 100th release - a concept that started back in 1983 and one that I can honestly say "I was there at the beginning" because the first album was one of my Christmas presents that year. It's interesting to hear how the Now! series was created (it was an idea from Virgin Records to showcase the best songs of the year. It turned into a collaboration with EMI - the first time two record labels had joined forces in this way ). The series took it's name from a 1920's poster that advertised Danish bacon and the pig in the same advertisement became the iconic image of the album series for the first five issues, although it's probably only us old heads that remember it properly! I loved receiving the latest Now! album for my birthday or Christmas, or even sa...

I shut down my work computer, picked up my phone to check for messages and a Facebook post appeared in my news feed.  One that I never ever thought I would read... I walked out of work and drove home  in silence, trying to process the information. Me and Kate go WAY back.  She's one of the 2010 OG's... or OB's as I like to call us - the "Original (Mummy) Bloggers".  We started our blogging journey at a similar time, wrote about the same family trials and tribulations, met at conferences and blogging events and she's one of the first people I message when there's something bugging me blogging-related so I can have a bitch or a moan or just see if she's got the lowdown on something.  In fact, I messaged her TODAY to see why she'd not responded to a YouTube link I'd sent her at the weekend related to our shared hatred of vlogger schmaltz.  We were also always musing about how we could encourage brands to properly tap into the +40...

Image Credit If your immediate answer is yes, then you’re clearly a Potterhead that would relish the opportunity to get up close and personal with your favourite Harry Potter creatures . If the answer is no, however, consider Warner Bros Studio Tours as a day out to the zoo, but with a difference! Why are magical creatures so much fun? Why aren’t they? While the antics of Harry Potter and his friends are exciting, they wouldn’t have defeated Voldemort and his Death Eaters without the help of some furry and winged friends along the way. Of course, not all of the creatures featured in the books and films are good at heart, but that’s all part of the fun! Which are the good creatures? With the exception of Ron Weasley’s rat, Scabbers, who turned out to be the nasty Peter Pettigrew in disguise, the animals owned by Hogwarts students, as their familiars, are all loyal and good-natured. Harry’s owl, Hedwig, is chief among them, but sadly dies when protecting him in a...