Blog

Weeks back I had a bit of a rant about singledom being a perceived state of deficiency. Well, I’m back on my high horse about it again, writes our regular blogger Ali.

‘What’s caused this?’ I hear you cry… probably literally sobbing as you realise I’m off on a rant again. Well – it was a conversation with a bloke who basically said that he didn’t believe me when I said that I was happy being single. Of course, an hour of being brow beaten later, he backed off but I remain indignant at the thought and so, yet again, I’m going to use this blog as a low cost form of therapy to...

My blog’s late and that is just one symptom of a newly acquired disease. I’ve fallen in love. With London. As you may remember from my previous blogs, I was feeling the pain of leaving Devon behind. My circumstances dictated much of the change – I needed a job, I couldn’t seem to get one in Devon – and so whilst I was excited about London, I was worried that I may not be doing the right thing. Well already my doubts have gone. It feels like having been in a rut personally for some years, I am now living again. And a lot of that is down to London. I wish I could give you some deep and...

After months of unemployment, I have got myself a job. This is great news for me but also pretty good news for you too. ‘Why?’ I hear you ask... (still single, live alone, still having make believe conversations to fill the time. You know the drill by now). Well, as you ask, this has saved you from, by my own impossibly low standards, the dullest blog ever about unemployment.

It would have started with my first trip to sign on, where a man decided to relieve himself on the Jobcentre chair. I was shocked but looking back I think perhaps he had a point. The blog would have...

Sunday morning and I’ve treated myself to breakfast out. Scrambled eggs on toast, coffee and freshly squeezed orange juice. I am listening to my favourite songs and people watching – things I love doing. In the last 24 hours I have bought ridiculous amounts of chocolate, drunk wine and had a long soak in a bath. All telltale signs that I am not in the happiest of moods. So what has caused that? One word – football. Let me explain.

It all started with a trip to Highbury to watch Arsenal when I was a kid. I couldn’t tell you who they played, the score or who won. The vivid...

Ellie Winkler from Saks Hair & Beauty in Princesshay offers some advice on how to ensure your hair gets as pampered as your skin.

One of the biggest selling products in the hair industry at the moment is hair oils. You will no doubt have seen so many different options and brands all competing for a position in this demanding market.

Oils are big at the moment because they are extremely effective and do an amazing job with your hair. We have all seen how important oils and serums are in the beauty industry for our skins and for moisturising and this...

How do you deal with enormous highs and lows of being a professional sportsman? This weekend saw arguably the best victory of our season so far and yet I find myself devoid of any real excitement.

Is this down to not having any real involvement in the victory over the current champions (and no comments about the win and my absence being related please)? Maybe, but I can assure you the real reason for feeling...

So, my first ever blog. After much procrastination, excuse making and general displacement activity I’ve actually sat down and written something! If I’m honest, it’s all a bit scary. I’ve got no ‘blogging’ experience and yet I find myself sat in front of the computer typing as if I know what I’m doing.

So what’s needed in a first blog? I guess that you need to know something about me? The first hurdle – fundamentally I have no idea how to describe myself. In a desperate attempt to answer this (and in true lonely hearts fashion) I turned to my friends and asked them for three words...

I read another depressing article in the Daily Mail Online about how women ‘can’t have it all’ when it comes to career and motherhood. I find this kind of article the worst, probably worse than seeing the streams of airbrushed models strewn across the pages of glossy magazines, beacaue I know that is unrealistic…I am old enough and wise enough to know what ‘real’ women’s bodies look like, but there is nothing more crushing, or more negative to portray, than telling women they simply can’t ‘have it all’.

Firstly, what is ‘having it all’?? This itself is confusing, because one of the...

What a difference a week can make. Subdued seven days ago by Aviva Premiership newcomers London Welsh, Exeter Chiefs returned to winning ways by claiming the prized scalp of Saracens in an attritional battle at wet and wild Sandy Park. Nine points from the boot of Argentine marksman Ignacio Mieres, plus a second half try for Fijian centre Sireli Naqelevuki, proved sufficient enough to down the Londoners, who replied with three penalties of their own from England international Owen Farrell. It was just reward for the Chiefs, who after successive away-day losses at Northampton Saints and...