It was like a Michael Jackson tribute event as we all stood with one glove on and screamed high pitch yelps at frequent moments. Alas, we were not at a concert but in the garden at 7am on a Sunday morning and the event was a caterpillar infestation. Our beautiful

We were waiting for the lift, when we noticed a young woman in the queue crying and being comforted by her friend. This would be noticeable in any lift queue but we were in a crowded queue at the top part of the Eiffel Tower in Paris and at that

I was now separated from my family and was instead with the customs officers in the UK answering questions and having my baggage searched, much to my kid’s mortification and my husband’s amusement. How had this happened? Because I had become too concerned with my baggage and not focused on

It’s the middle of the night. Five women sleeping peacefully, on a Hawaiian retreat, in a pitch black shared room – and what looks like a flashing cursing Christmas Tree stumbling around, lighting up the darkness, freaking every one out… that would be me! The reason for the stumbling disturbance

Robbie Williams was once asked why he thought he was so successful and he replied “I just show up”. Now although Robbie may sometimes be more known for the profane than profound, it was something that stuck with me. Is it that easy? Can we find the universal answers, our

“Sometimes gifts come packaged as nights curled up in the fetal position” If ‘stuff’ had an alarm reminder setting it would be 3am. One minute I’m fast asleep, head nice and empty apart from the odd weird dream cruising in and then…WTF… At first it’s a vague awareness that “uh,

As I stared at the huge monkey baring his teeth, it was finally time to say goodbye to an old, faithful friend. This friend was thirteen years old , had travelled the country with us, been battered and abused, saved us from discomfort and after all this, in his retiring

It was a simple goal, to get a photograph with a white lion cub called Boris – his trainer was there, his friends were there and it was in an enclosure, how hard could this be? Apparently very! The first problem was that the lion had just been in a

Last night my soul sat down and cried. Not a sobbing, wrenching expressive wail of frustration and anger But a silent heart breaking yearning for the past that had been irretrievably lost And the future I could not find. Not a soft enveloping darkness, a winter hibernation, watching dusk fall

As with every walk on the beach, I receive more than I seek and this time I had stood on a sea urchin. After years of diving in danger infested seas, my first injury was from a small innocuous creature on one of the safest beaches in Europe. After hobbling

“You have a lung disease.” A statement with two words together that you never want to hear. As the doctor carried on with other inconsequential words like “inhaler, medication, tests” my brain had gone into an amygdale high-jack thereby cutting off all rational thought and processes and replacing it with