Feeling the Fear… and Being Sensible About It

Posted on January 19, 2026 by suzie81speaks

A long time ago, someone I deeply admired and respected told me that I was led by fear. At the time, I found it enormously insulting and dismissed it almost immediately. Granted, I’m not the sort of person who will be bungee jumping, skydiving or swimming in the ocean anytime soon, but I had made enormous changes, started a whole new career, put myself out there in situations that would normally have made me uncomfortable and my only thought was, “you don’t know anything about me.”

However, in more recent years I have been forced to admit to myself that in some areas of my life, they were right. Not in an over-the-top or all consuming way, but in the quieter decisions I make, the things I hesitate over and the situations I approach with caution instead of confidence.

Royalty free image credit: jwvein on Pixabay

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The No Spend January 2026 Challenge: Week 3

Posted on January 18, 2026 by suzie81speaks

It has been the second full week of January (but I included the first three days as Week 1) and the third food shop of the month as part of the No Spend January 2026 Challenge. We’re still doing well, but the contents of the freezer is now very low and I know that we will need more frozen items in the food shop next week.

The No Spend January 2026 Challenge: Week 3. Our food shop for the week.

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The Worst Things I Have Experienced at the Theatre

Posted on January 17, 2026 by suzie81speaks

I love going to the theatre and I have been fortunate enough to see hundreds of productions, many of them more than once. Additionally, I have had the opportunity to meet and interview a number of performers, writers and directors, which has only added to my respect for the amount of hard work that happens both on and off the stage to bring a production together.

With live performance, some level of unpredictability is always part of the deal and that is generally understood and accepted. Things do go wrong from time to time and the performers and crew pause or adjust when they need to. Over the years, I have seen performances rightly stopped for medical emergencies in the audience, understudies take over after the interval when a performer has been taken ill and intervals extended while technical issues behind the scenes are resolved. These moments are part of live theatre, handled professionally and for good reason.

Royalty free image credit: ballardinix on Pixabay

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The Pros and Cons of Being Self-Employed

Posted on January 16, 2026 by suzie81speaks

“You’re so lucky, I wish I could do that…”

Being self-employed and freelancing is often described as either the ultimate dream or an ongoing nightmare, depending on who you ask. For me, the reality sits somewhere in the middle. Like every job, being self-employed comes with genuine advantages alongside some very real challenges, with both existing at the same time.

I have been self-employed since 2015, after walking away from an established and secure teaching career when it became so stressful that I ended up in hospital. In the decade since, I have created a whole new path as a self-employed social media manager and it still remains as one of the best decisions of my life.

But it hasn’t been all flowers and rainbows and I have learned a lot from both the incredible and awful things I have experienced. Being self-employed and building something from nothing is hard, involving persistence, long hours, risk, uncertainty and plenty of effort behind the scenes to create something sustainable. So when others say that I’m “lucky,” I will agree that luck may have played a part along the way, but it has been matched with consistency, hard work, plenty of tears and a willingness to keep going when things were really tough.

The pros and cons of being self-employed: the benefits, the challenges and the reality of working for yourself. — Royalty free image credit: Pixabay

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A Visit to the Hospital and a Major Dose of Gratitude

Posted on January 15, 2026 by suzie81speaks

Last week I slipped on some ice on the patio at the back of my house and landed full force on my knee. It was such a shock that it wasn’t necessarily painful at first, but the swelling and bruising were immediate. I did what you’re supposed to do – ice packs for 20 minutes every few hours, elevating it etc – but it just continued to get worse.

The following day, we had a heavy snowfall that lasted for 24 hours which resulted in us being snowed in for three days, so I couldn’t get to the hospital for an X-ray. During that time the bruising grew to areas above and below my knee – an enormous 20cm galaxy of blue, yellow, purple and black. I could bend it slightly and hold weight on it for a period of time, but what concerned me was that the skin on my knee was completely numb.

So as soon as the snow cleared, I took myself off to my local hospital.

Not the most exciting image in the world – they gave me a hospital gown as I couldn’t pull my trouser leg over my knee

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On Being Older than Google

Posted on January 14, 2026 by suzie81speaks

One of the things I used to tell my students when they asked me how old I was, is that I am older than Google. I’m only 44 years old, but that is a testament to the pace of change even in just my lifetime.

And I think that this is something quite profound for many. Lately, my social media feeds have been full of people of my generation and older, reminiscing about how things were ‘back in the day.’ In the silly age-bracket labels that people are placed into nowadays, I am an older millennial (born 1981–1996). I was born in the early 80s and grew up in the nineties, and there seems to be a collective sense of nostalgia and a longing between Millennials and Gen X (born 1965–1980) for how simple life felt back then.

Royalty free image credit: Stocksnap on Pixabay

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Becoming an Early Bird

Posted on January 13, 2026 by suzie81speaks

I used to be very much a night owl. Late evenings were when I felt most focused and mornings were something I often got through rather than enjoyed. Waking up early on purpose didn’t appeal to me at all.

These days, I am at my most productive between about 5.00am and 11.00am and I structure the bulk of my workload around that window as much as possible. It is not about discipline or self improvement as such, it’s more about recognising when my brain works best.

Royalty free image credit: annacpictures from Pixabay

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A Minor Jellycat Obsession

Posted on January 12, 2026 by suzie81speaks

“How much?!”

Apparently, it was a Jellycat.

It was a small, fluffy piece of toast plush toy thing, for the rather eye-watering price of £23.00, on a shelf in Waterstones. I knew the name – there had been quite a hype surrounding the opening of the Jellycat store in Selfridges in Birmingham, and The Bloke had bought me a Jellycat bunny years ago as a gift without either of us paying much attention to the name itself, but that was as far as my knowledge went.

Suffice to say, the extortionately-priced toast toy stayed on the display that day.

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The No Spend January 2026 Challenge: Week 2

Posted on January 11, 2026 by suzie81speaks

It has been the first full week back at work and today is the second food shop of the month as part of the No Spend January 2026 Challenge. So far, we have done really well. We haven’t bought anything or ordered any takeaways or deliveries. We’re still working our way through things that are in the cupboards, fridge and freezer and last week’s food shop was more than enough to fill in the gaps of what we were missing.

Additionally, the weather has prevented us from going anywhere (we were completely snowed in two days ago, although by yesterday morning some of it had melted), which has helped in the goal of spending as little money as possible.

The No Spend January 2026 Challenge - creating a budget food shop and using the contents of our cupboards, fridge and freezer.

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Ten Years Since Bowie

Posted on January 10, 2026 by suzie81speaks

Today marks the tenth anniversary of David Bowie’s passing and that in itself feels rather strange to acknowledge. Ten years isn’t really that long, and yet it feels like the world has changed almost beyond recognition since then.

Growing up, I was never a fan of David Bowie’s music in the sense of actively seeking it out, but because I was born in the eighties, he was always there. His presence was constant, almost woven into the background of everyday life through radio, television, magazines and general pop culture.

And, of course, there was Labyrinth.

Even without listening particularly closely, he felt familiar. Everyone knew his name, his face, who he was and what he did, even if they couldn’t give specifics.