I saw this posted over at Fat Mum Slim's this morning and loved the question. Equally I loved having a mosey round to see where other people blog too.
I blog in my office. I've spent quite a while carving out this space for myself over the past year. It's where I work and where I spend far too much time on Etsy as well!
I have my vision board for 2011 near my screen and a year planner beside me as well. I try to keep my desk uncluttered and clean, though all too often it's a losing battle ;)
My husband has a desk in here as well, but it faces the opposite way. I like that he is in here with me, I just don't like his mess!
My notepad with a daily list of things to do sits beside my laptop. My laptop was a gift from my husband and family last year and I would be lost without it now.
All too often though, I confess, I don't work here, I don't blog either. Instead I will sit and look at my garden and become hypnotised by the beautiful palm tree just outside my window as it sways.
Now where was I?

I keep coming to write a blog post.
Then I delete it.
Everything seems too trivial, too mundane, too heartless, too shallow in the face of all that is happening.
But this morning I realised that like it or not, that is part of life. Or my life anyway.
So last night I allowed my new kitchen to be put to good use

And the end result was this


 And the best part was I didn't have to lift a finger. Except to sip some more wine.
Actually no. The best part was having my family together. And seeing my brother so happy. We laughed, swapped stories and I realised that there is a lot of happiness still in the world. And also, that some of Jamie Oliver's recipes are awesome.
Here's to a better week everyone.
*clinks glass*

I read alot of blogs.
I remember when I started reading blogs and writing my own, someone asked me; "What are you writing for?"
Good question.
I think it evolved over time. It was a way of sharing what I wanted and needed to share with others. It was a way of connecting. It was a way for me to articulate (usually to myself) something I was working through or a goal I needed to set.
I enjoy blogging. I usually enjoy reading other peoples blogs. I've made what I consider to be genuine friendships through blogging.
And I don't for one minute think that reading a blog gives me a complete and total representation of who a person actually is. I may come across as delightful and witty, but ask my husband to describe me this morning and he would look anxiously over his shoulder to check I wasn't within earshot before telling you:"cranky and a tad unreasonable."
But recently a few things have begun to puzzle me.
I worry about those who share all too painful truths here, are getting their fingers not only burnt, but singed right off.
I worry that those in whom we place our trust, offer our support to, may not actually really need it.
It's like the way teens are often judged. The reality is, the majority of them are great, decent young people. And some are not. And often, it's the few who ensure everyone else is tarred with the same brush. As a former teacher it used to annoy me intensely the way this stereotype was both engendered and perpetuated.
And in some ways I worry about this in blogland.
There is a saying "Least said, soonest mended."
I could not agree with this less right now.
So I'm taking a little blog "holiday."
Planning a party for Miss Medium. Getting into training for my next fun run. Catching up on emails. Taking Mr Small in for surgery. Having my gallbladder out.
In the interests of full disclosure
I needed you to know that.
I promise I'll show you my scar.
Maybe not.

I know life's pretty boring around here lately.  There aren't any travel stories, or photographs of hobbits.  All you get is some petulant whining instead.    Well, get thee over to the Women's Colony, where from now on you can read my travel-related tales.  There's a new post there regarding our (three-day) hiking swansong before leaving New Zealand. There are mountains, and scenery, and we

I have nothing to say. Sorry!

It's been a busy day in the household. First, I went to work, as usual. After a day of working on something of vital international importance (I jest, sort of) and fielding questions about the latest issues to arise in the world of preventing people getting their just deserts, I did some Bookcrossing, and then went to my new class.Arsetanga Yoga, so-called not because it is arse, but because it

A friend came round and downloaded an Arcade emulator onto my computer. Suddenly, it's 1985 and blogging hasn't been invented yet.

I hope everyone had as eventful a Halloween as I did! We attended a party at the same house as last year. The costumes were outrageous, and I have decided that for reasons of privacy, I won't be posting the photographs of my colleague who went as Frankenfurter, or any of the other attendees. We somehow managed not to take any photographs of ourselves, so I will have to wait obtain some from

Two words: Mrs. G. I think this was perhaps supposed to be a Sunday thing, but because we're in the future here in New Zealand, I didn't figure that out until the clock had struck 13.The alarm goes off at 6.58am, but it would be too cruel to subject both of us to an image of that, so we'll pretend that the actual getting-out-of-bed proceeded smoothly and without delay, and skip straight to ....

NaBloPoMo comes to an end. While I didn't manage to post every day, the missing days were accounted for by computer issues, so I still feel pretty good about keeping my promise to myself.And now, I think I need a little break for a few days, so I can look through the list on the NaBloPoMo website and find some new and brilliant blogs to read, instead of partaking of all this navel-gazing.

I have no words. I have literally run out of things to say. Nothing exciting happened today: nothing. At least the Thug caused minor amusement yesterday by wearing brown loafers with black trousers. But today was one of those days where I went to work, I sat at my desk, and though I appeared to be working, no tasks were crossed off the To-Do List. Click to enlarge

I’m in the Cave.Normal service will resume tomorrow.

It looks like I am out of NaBlo. Dammit, I was doing so well - planning my posts in my head on the way home, fretting if it got to 5pm and I still had nothing to write about. And on those days, I still managed to pull a Dilbert cartoon out of my arse. But it couldn't last. I tempted fate. I commented last week on Jonathan's blog that I was secretly hoping that my shitty old Packard Bell would

I've been tagged by Lucy to tell you seven facts about myself. Some of them are meant to "random", and some "weird". Yes, I saved this one up for NaBloPoMo. Thanks, Lucy!1. I have a ridiculous number of moles. Actual proper moles, not freckles. Not even close to freckles. In fact I look as though someone dipped a paint brush in the nearest gloopy mud puddle and flicked it at me. Repeatedly. For

Blogging is a craft and it takes time. I have many posts lined up in my head, but work is crazy and blah blah blah. That's right. I'm not actively shoring up my resources in readiness for NaBloPoMo. You and I both know it's in nobody's best interests for me to have to post about my father's vintage milk bottle collection.

I have received two awards for being a blow-hard (the Thinking Blogger Award, courtesy of Crofty, a man at one with vegetation, and the Rockin' Girl Blogger Award, courtesy of Laura over at A Common Language). How very flattering!But now, I have a confession. The Thinking Blogger Award has been in the back of my brain for around two months, struggling to break free from the Shocking Truth.The

I haven't forgotten. I'm still thinking about who to nominate.

There's a gap, and I've set up a new home in it. It's the emotional gap between loving every moment of seeing your long lost friends (and most moments of communing with your family), and needing two days where the only thing you do is lie in bed under a huge duvet with a book and a giant mug of hot chocolate, while Radio 4 plays unobtrusively in the background. The yin hemisphere of my brain