Following from last week's recap of the downs this is a nicer post to write because as promised, it's all about the gentle midlife highs of 2025. When I look back there weren't as many big moments as there have been in other years but that's not a bad thing. I'm at the stage where I'm very happy to travel through life on what's perhaps more of a gentle log flume than a roller coaster. And as I read [...]
Well hello and a very Happy New Year to you. Cold isn't it? I hope you're emerging from a lovely, restful break ready for a shiny new beginning. I'm going to be looking back at 2025 today as well as wrapping up Christmas. We had exactly the time I hoped for, it was low key and relaxed, we immersed ourselves in happy times with family and friends and just switched off from the outside world for a couple of [...]
I'd hoped to write a Midlife Lately today because I haven't had a chance to do one since the end of October and there's such a lot for us to talk about but I've run out of time so we'll just have to have a big one in January. Instead I'm going to end the year by pondering over how to make a memorable Christmas. What is it that makes some Christmases stand out with a particularly warm glow [...]
So how are you getting on? One more week of work to go for most of us... and are you skipping or limping? I'm really looking forward to Christmas but this week has felt like one of those long runs where you hit a wall and getting to the end seems impossible. Extra stuff has just toppled me over - like the heating breaking down and a car needing a new wheel... things that involve lots of phone calls [...]
It's a bit of a different post today. Before we plunge into the busy-ness of Christmas I want to tell you about a special project that I've been working on and the thinking that brought it to life. Its focus is identity - specifically the way a woman's sense of identity changes as she gets older. For some menopause brings a feeling of rebirth while others report a slide into invisibility. Whichever way it is there's almost always a [...]
And so I'm back... from outer space... well not quite but it feels like it. We had an incredibly relaxing week away doing very little which is exactly what we wanted but it doesn't give me a lot to talk to you about today. I packed very light and it was a selection from my usual holiday wardrobe, almost all of which you've seen before. We did very little beyond sleeping, eating, chatting and sliding in and out of [...]
I usually write one of my more thought driven posts at this time of year, generally triggered by a couple of weeks away on holiday with time to think. That hasn't happened this year because we had our big trip to Colombia in February but ever since my May birthday post where we talked about looking back from the perspective of your 80 year-old self, I've been focusing on the new stage of life that a lot of us are [...]
New friendships - Midlifechic overnighter 2025 Today you won't be surprised to hear that I want to talk about our Midlifechic overnighter 2025 in Birmingham last weekend. But before I go into the detail let's zoom out a bit and ask, "what's the point of these get togethers?" As you know I've been tentatively organising meet-ups since November 2019. Each time I try to take them on a step or two, stretching the time together out a little longer and [...]
This is one of those posts that is all about family and it's where my blog turns personal as a legacy that I hope to pass down. It's a long one and it will hold no interest for some - if that's you, I assure you that normal service will be resumed next week. Others though will understand how the milestones that we reach don't always point ahead, sometimes they cause you to look back along the path that's [...]
It's a post of two halves today, one part thinking, the other shopping, both in response to reader feedback. The thing that I've discovered over the last year is that I enjoy writing this blog more than writing a book specifically because it's a living thing. The conversations we have in the comments help me to know when there's more on something that we need to talk about - or simply when you need ideas on what to wear. [...]
58th birthday thoughts - birthdays always make you feel reflective don't they? I always think that the time around New Year is a good point for reviewing life as a couple or family and the week around your birthday is a bit more personal, an opportunity to work out how things are going for you. I was 58 on Monday and a new decade is just starting to shimmer on a still faraway horizon. It feels a bit like [...]
I'm sure you're already aware that we're living through a period of nostalgia - it's been happening for a while, people looking back to safer, simpler feeling times. You see it with the throwbacks that are going on everywhere - in fashion, in food, in music... amongst the older generations who remember an offline era that was slower and less pressured... and throughout the younger generations too. Top of the Gen Z Christmas wishlist was a 'vintage' 90s digital camera, [...]
And just like that I'm back at my desk - it feels impossible that reality and everyday life still exists. Colombia was absolutely the trip of a lifetime and ever since we started the journey home I've been trying to work out why so that I could articulate it here. I think it's because it was so much a road untravelled. For most of it there just wasn't a tourist path and so we were immersed into everyday life [...]
As promised this is my second rather reflective post on the theme of what 2024 taught me. Today though I'm also looking at lessons from the travel experiment that we've been playing around with over the last few years so that I can write this 'travel in midlife and onwards post' properly. Somebody told me this weekend that I think too much, that I should just get on and live life forwards - and even though it was said in [...]
This post is late this year I know - it's a whole new month tomorrow. Before I start though I just want to thank you for all of the fabulous book recommendations last week - my Kindle floweth over - and for the enthusiastic response to the survey. As I explained last week I've approached January quite differently this year, I haven't felt my usual need to get everything pinned down. Something's afoot and I suspect I might finally be [...]
As it's still January there's nothing interesting in the shops and payday hasn't come around yet so it's another chat post today - how's your month going? I hope you've managed to swerve this week's Blue Monday mood. I know a lot of people get themselves into a pickle about it being a manufactured event but I do think there's something to it. I've noticed that a lot of the chats I've had on the canal when I've been [...]
Ways to make the most of 2025 Well hello, how are you feeling as we find ourselves in a bright, crisp new year? And crisp it certainly is - our views out to the snowy Lake District hills are so stunning at the moment that they don't look real. Anyway back to the feeling of a new year. I've caught up with a lot of my favourite people over the last month or so and in my circle the [...]
From this week's weather it would appear that summer is completely over (9 degrees here!) and I haven't kept my blog up to date with what we've been doing. As you know, these posts are really just for me to look back on in the future so if you come here for the fashion updates, skip over this one, clothes will be back next week. Despite the awful weather, summer 2024 has been one of the least travelled but most [...]
Continuing with my series of shorter posts, here's a little summer 24 midlife lately catch-up but first I must just thank you profusely for all of the answers you gave to my question last week. I'm busy going through them and I'm so grateful to everyone who's shared so much, please know that even though it's anonymous I still feel honoured to have your confidence. I will try my utmost to pull something good from everything you've told me - [...]
Happy Friday! It's just a quick post today because I'm pleased to say that I've actually begun the writing phase of the book and now I find I can't stop. I should have just sat down and started typing ages ago but I've been churning in a state of not feeling qualified to do it. However by beginning with a couple of the chapters that come to me easily, I'm now getting somewhere. There is one area where I [...]
Midlife travel solo Last month I told you all about my women only trip sailing around Thailand. That post looked at where we went and what we did but there was so much to say that I couldn't finish with what it taught me and that's what I want to talk about today. People set out on midlife travel solo journeys for all kinds of reasons but travelling without Mal wasn't something I'd ever thought of doing before and I'm [...]
We've made it to February my friends and a huge thank you for your enthusiastic response to the meet-up. Mal confiscated my phone on Friday evening to stop me thinking about it so I was over the moon to see that it had sold out on Saturday. For those who've asked, I've managed to add five more places, they've just gone live - link here. I'll move back to the subject of clothes next week but today is another post [...]
I'm going to carry on addressing some of the issues you shared with me in last October's survey today. For everyone who's asking, I will talk about style and run the retailer spotlights again but not at the moment when the shops are short on inspiration and we're all wrapped up against the snow. So today is all about the difficult parts of midlife that nobody prepares you for - the rough comes with the smooth - and how to [...]
Well hello, I hope you had a lovely bank holiday weekend. As you know we spent ours in the sunshine with Gillian and Stephen who started off as Midlifechic readers (well perhaps not Stephen) but have now become firm friends. With disrupted travel it's been a hectic week since we got home so I'm inviting you to join us for what will have to be a whistlestop tour of our midlife weekend in Porto. A midlife weekend in Porto - [...]
And so, as you'll know if you follow my Instagram feed, there was a big day for our family a couple of weeks ago. It was the middle one's graduation, a day I found myself completely unprepared for in terms of impact. It was a bit like pregnancy when you find yourself so focused on the birth that it's almost a shock when you have to take the baby home with you afterwards and you realise that in the [...]
Today I have the great fortune of sharing another birthday post with you - my tenth one in fact. And when I say good fortune I really mean it. I've never been complacent about the sheer blessing of being alive but I'm more aware of it than ever because over the last twelve months we've lost or have worried about losing too many friends and acquaintances of our age to cancer and sudden heart attacks. And of course I also [...]
How strange it is to be back. I'm going to need a bit of time to go through the photos of our trip to Kenya but I'm hoping to talk about the safari element next week. In the meantime, I mentioned on Instagram that it had changed me and quite a few of you asked how - so before the cloak of habit envelops me again, I'm going to try to pin it down with travel and what it's taught [...]
As you'll know if you follow my Instagram feed, we set off on an adventure this morning (well at least I hope we did because I'm typing this on Wednesday so I'm assuming all will have gone to plan!). It means there won't be another blog post until 24th February but part of the project involves posting Instagram Stories every day so you can catch me there - in the spoken word rather than the written one. And I'm leaving [...]
Something a bit different today because there's no point in talking about clothes at the moment - we're going to need an Ark up here soon if the rain doesn't stop! Before I start though I just want to thank you for all of the encouraging comments and messages you sent after my Christmas post, they were so heartwarming to read and they helped my year of blogging to end on an especially happy note. So talking about learnings suggests [...]
This week and next for me are all about tinsel and baubles. It's officially my 30th year in retail and 'Christmas in July'... I've been doing this for a long time! Going in and out of Christmas events on hot London days does leave you somewhat confused - it's like the feeling you get when you wake up in a hotel somewhere exotic knowing that you'll end the day back in your own bed. However, as the boys would say, [...]
It's a bit of a different post today. Since the Telegraph article I've had quite a few women get in touch to ask me how I manage to feel confident at this age when it's so easy to feel that everything's in decline. As regular readers know, back in 2014 I'd lost all of my confidence and so I deliberately decided to work on it. At the time I called it 'getting my groove back' and although that sounds cheesy, [...]
My goodness these weeks roll around quickly when the sun's out don't they? We have a lot going on on the domestic front at the moment and I'll tell you more about that at the end so it's a catch-up post today. I'm going to start with a run through of what I've been doing and wearing, move on to clothing to combat hot weather (I think you need it more desperately in the South than we do up here) [...]
It's a bit of a different post today, it includes clothes (of course) but it's also about growing older contentedly. When I was down in London a couple of weeks ago I met up with Nayna McIntosh from Hope and after we'd looked through the glorious new season pieces that I'll show you in a few minutes, we got chatting about things like the true markers of success as we approach the end of this phase we call midlife. You [...]
The end of days And just like that they've flown. After 25 years of family life our nest is empty and it's the moment I've been dreading since my boys first arrived and filled our home with love, mischief and laughter. I distinctly remember holding each one of them for the first time and feeling so many things: joy, awe, responsibility, love... all tinged with an awareness that I was heading on a journey that would be over before I'd [...]
It's my last post before we go away and so I thought I'd do something a bit different. Several times a year I'm asked by magazines, newspapers or other bloggers to do interviews which isn't usually as grand as it sounds, it means they send me a list of questions to answer and sometimes they publish them, sometimes they don't. It's something I never really have time to do but quite enjoy doing because I find it helps to crystallise [...]
And at last, our city apartment is just about finished. All we have left to do is find a few pieces of art for empty spots and update the bathrooms - but that will have to wait until there's no longer a global shortage of sanitary ware or plumbers working to six month waiting lists. As we sat back with a glass of wine on Sunday evening and looked around us, it struck us both that we'd done something we'd [...]
I think it's always worth taking some time to reflect as your birthday approaches and tomorrow I'll be 54 so that's what I'm doing. I'm usually looking back over a busy year of personal achievements peppered with standout moments but this one, of course, has been a little different. It's hard to view the last twelve months with any kind of perspective because even though lockdown's starting to lift, it doesn't quite feel as though this strange time is over [...]
Well as you may have seen on Instagram, we had a big celebration in our house this week because on Wednesday it was our 20th wedding anniversary. And I know that immediately some of you will do the maths and think but surely the eldest is 24? And you're right. You see there's a story behind our story that I've never told but today feels like the day to do it. It isn't going to be easy to write and [...]
And here we are in February, a month I like because it takes us swiftly out of winter and into the beginning of spring. It's a month of love in our house because not only do we have Valentine's Day but also our wedding anniversary. First though comes Midlifechic's birthday. Yesterday this little blog of mine reached the grand old age of seven and of course in the context of the lives that we've lived, that doesn't seem very old. [...]
Well hello! How are you? I hope your 2020 ended with a Christmas that meant something to you, even if it was a bit different - and that you feel in some way restored. Hitting a new year in a state of extreme lockdown wasn't what any of us were hoping for but we'll get through it together. Today I'm going to do a quick Christmas recap for my memory bank and then I'll share the way that I'm going [...]
My last post for 2020 - wow what a year. In fact I almost feel I should leave it at that because what can I say? I don't have enough perspective to review it dispassionately yet but I thought I'd share my immediate reflections here, even if only because one day I hope this will be an interesting sociological record to look back on. So I'm going to do it in my usual way, starting with the downs, moving on [...]
I know some of you, the Scots in particular, have been wondering whether I was ever going to publish this. It's two weeks since we went away for Mr MC's birthday and already it feels like a lifetime ago - not just in terms of time but also in lifestyle because now our freedoms are far fewer again. We were so lucky to snatch a weekend of fun when we did and looking through the photos it reminds me that [...]
Well I hope you're getting used to the increasing levels of lockdown if you're in the UK. Given our proximity to a two university city with rapidly increasing rates of infection, we were quite surprised to find ourselves in tier two but I suspect that will change very soon. So as today is my sister's birthday, I made the most of being able to spend this morning drinking coffee with her in her garden which means today's post is a [...]
Well what a week it's been here, I have lots to tell you. In this post I'm wearing quite a few new season pieces for people who just come for the clothes and I'll finish with a surprising development on the life front for those who follow my ups and downs. But first, a huge thank you to everyone who joined me for a workout in the park with Sally at an ungodly hour this morning - I'll embed the [...]
Today I'm wrapping summer up with one last blast of sunshine from Turkey before I move into everything autumnal. I have lots of questions coming in about Kalkan - I think a few other bloggers have been out there this year so it's on the rise as a destination. People are asking me for more detail about what it's like and whether I'd recommend going there now. Of course I can't tell you what is and isn't safe - you [...]
Hello everyone. Well another week has gone by, the first one of relative freedom and it was interesting to read how some of you were slowly moving out of lockdown in the comments after my last post. As so many people said, it's clear that everybody has a different attitude to risk and the good thing is that so far, most people seem to be able to live alongside each other without judging. Mr MC and I are finding that [...]
Well (and I say this cautiously) it's starting to feel as though we're coming through to the other side of the great coronavirus lockdown. I hope you've had a good weekend and that you've managed to start meeting some of the people you've missed so much. We've caught up with a few friends and clients now (although the weather hasn't been great here so some conversations have suddenly been cut short by torrential downpours) even so, it's felt good to [...]
Well hello... on this day that has always been a beacon in my calendar... because it's my birthday. A friend who graduated to the same age as me last week said she was dreading it this time because all it meant was another year on her age with none of the associated fun. And I admit that I'm less bouncy about it than usual but that's because I haven't been buoyed by our usual festival weekend. I miss having a [...]
Quarantine - as the days roll on - Coronavirus 2020 How are you getting on? I have to admit that today is the first day when I've felt a bit fed up of all of this so I'm glad it's a blogging day. With the possibility that somebody has happened upon this post few years on from now, let me just apply some context. We're now in the eighth week of quarantine and in Boris Johnson's broadcast on Sunday evening [...]
Lockdown week 5 Well, here we are at the start of a shiny new month, probably not as far along as we thought we would be when when we turned from March to April but it feels like progress nevertheless. May is my favourite month of the year and of course that could just be because it's my birthday month and so it always feels as though it's brimming with promise but even so, I still believe it's the most [...]
Hello everyone, I'm back from my 'week off.' I hope you've all been settling into this new way of living, I thought we'd have a quick Midlife lately quarantine catch up today and then perhaps go on to look at some clothes on Friday. As this spell of good weather continues (she says, touching wood), I'm starting to think about a wardrobe for a summer that is largely, if not completely, going to be spent at home. Before that though [...]
We're coming to the end of the third week of lockdown and so I thought I'd do another simple diary. As readers you will of course know what it's like to go shopping at the moment but I'm recording it here for legacy purposes. I hope that soon we'll be looking back with disbelief and I don't want to forget how extraordinary this time was. So today do please add in the comments anything that's struck you as you've tried [...]
Lockdown continues - how are you feeling? Hello everyone, I shot myself in the foot a bit on Tuesday with a recap on what we'd been doing so today I thought I'd focus more on how this is feeling instead. Obviously these are just my personal reflections so I'm hoping that in the spirit of social diary, you'll add some of your thoughts in the comments at the end. What I'm keen to log is: as the lockdown continues - [...]
Hello everybody, I hope hope you're all ok out there. We'd never have imagined a week like the one we've just had would we and who knows where we go from here? For now, I'm going to try to keep up with a weekly coronavirus update even if it's just as a kind of social diary to log how this bolt from the blue affected an ordinary family. So here we go - Coronavirus diaries - lockdown week 1. Coronavirus [...]
Well hello... hasn't this been the strangest of weeks? I awoke on Monday morning to our usual routine and by Wednesday it had all gone awry. As one of my reasons for writing this blog is to connect with future generations of my family, I'm going to be logging how it feels to live through these strange coronavirus days but it won't all be doom and gloom. I'll be looking for the upsides wherever I can, hoping that Midlifechic can [...]
(Please note that this post focuses on thinking ahead to the end of our lives. If you are ill or recently bereaved, you may find it difficult to read... but I hope not) As you can see, I have a completely different topic for us to discuss today and at first it may not seem easy but actually it's not so bad. I'm supporting the brilliant people behind the charity Marie Curie who are trying to get us thinking ahead [...]
Well hello and a Happy New Year to you. I'm back to blogging a little later than planned because we had guests until 30th December and then went over to Newcastle for a family funeral so it turned out to be busier than we expected. However everything went well and mum-in-law declared it to be 'the best Christmas for years' - phew! Reflections on a midlife decade Even though it's ten days old now, I feel as though I need [...]
For the last couple of weeks I've been writing two potential versions of this post in my head. You see on an ordinary morning just after we got back from France, I discovered a marble-sized lump in my breast. My immediate reaction was denial. I told myself it was just the edge of a rib but then I asked Mr MC to check and I could see by his face that it wasn't. Just like that life began to spin [...]
It's a cornucopia post today and a bit of a long one so you might want to pour that cup of tea / glass of wine before you start. I've been testing a lot of beauty products over the last few months and a few have made my 'must tell readers about...' shelf. So I'll start with those and then move on to menopause followed by a bit of a midlife melting pot. By the end of it there should [...]
Today's post is a little bit different, I'm taking part in a writing project that was commissioned by the peer to peer lending company Zopa. To celebrate their Innovative Finance ISA, which they say “sits in the middle between low risk, low yielding cash ISAs and volatile, high return stocks and shares ISAs”, they asked a number of people to think about “the middle” and what it means to them. Of course for me, the middle immediately makes me think [...]
Well here we are on 'Brexit Day' at the end of what must have been one of the craziest weeks in British history. Our business is feeling the impact. We work with a number of Sci-Tech businesses that are being badly hit by the loss of European funding, the stalling of potential global funding and the inability to get innovations passed in the absence of a governing system. As a result, some people we know are facing the loss of [...]
Hello! Yesterday (Monday 4th February) was Midlifechic's 5th birthday. It's been quite a journey from this rather petrified looking first ever outfit shot... ... to moments like this... I'm writing this in a bit of a hurry because we have, quite literally, got a plane to catch. But I do just want to express my gratitude for the amazing personal journey that this blog has taken me on over the last five years. I'm not talking about the glitzy things [...]
...and let me start by apologising for the 'women over 40' extension on the title there. I know that a sizeable chunk of you aren't over 40 and this process has nothing to do with age, it just helps it to stand out amidst the millions of 'how to build a capsule wardrobe' posts on the internet. So, let's get started with the first part of the series that I put together over the Christmas holidays when I was working [...]
Before I start, I have to say thank you to Nicky Keep who sent me a picture of the above jumper when she was shopping in Sainsbury's - I rushed straight out to find one! It's my last day in the office and I'm hoping to log off for two whole weeks so that means that this is probably the last post of 2018. I haven't really had a chance to look back at the year yet but I feel [...]
Ok, I promised we'd have a catch up and I have so much to tell you - October has been a blur but let's start where I left you last time, just before the funeral. Newcastle It was, as you can imagine, heartbreaking. When you're inside a family, you never really see the impact that your relative has beyond your immediate enclave until something like this happens. As we arrived at the crematorium, we were overwhelmed by the sheer size [...]
It's just a short post from me today because it's been a funny old week. I've been slogging my way through a heavy cold and feeling a bit contemplative after the evening with my friend T. I've been thinking about life and reflecting on the pros and cons of the knowledge that I suppose most of us gain by midlife simply as a result of the experiences that we've lived through. The upsides are many - the 'what the hell?' [...]
Hello, I'm back and I've already been down to London but I'm itching to blog again so I thought I'd divide our Kalkan summer holiday into two parts. You see we didn't really do much in the first week which means I have enough time to give you part one today. So, seeing as the forecast is bad for the Bank Holiday weekend, I'll bring you a taste of sunshine. Before I get to that though, let me tell you [...]
I've been interviewed for a few magazines and websites recently. So, given that quite a few of you said you'd enjoyed the FAQ post I did last year, I thought I'd pull some of the questions together just to fill the gap while we're away. I've added some of the questions that I'm asked regularly by readers too so it's a bit random... but welcome to the inside of my head (my family would tell you that it can be [...]
We don't often talk about reading on here and yet as so many of you know, it is one of my biggest pleasures in life. Some people say I read a lot. I just counted for this post and I've read 27 books so far this year which is almost a book a week. Given that I used to have to get through four books a week in different languages when I was doing my degree, it doesn't seem a [...]
And so the world of style blogging is hitting its summer lull. As the sales are in full swing and the storybook sunshine goes on, I can feel my mind turning away from its usual fascination with retail towards the things that matter more. I'm very aware that for our family, this will be our last calm summer for a while. We have no important exam results to anticipate and when autumn comes, our status quo will continue with everyone [...]
Hello, I'm back. My schedule is still slightly disrupted but it's good to be blogging again. Let me tell you all about our trip to Valencia which turned out to be very simple and very relaxed - just what we all needed. This is one of those posts that is a bit of a personal journal as well as a midlife style blog. As you know, one of the reasons I write is for any future great, great grandchildren of [...]
This morning I am feeling every one of my 51 years which could have something to do with the fact that I decided to party like a 15 year-old in celebration of my 51st birthday. I haven't stopped all weekend and my brain is dead so I'm going to let the pictures do the talking and share a bit of my birthday joy with you. It all started on Friday night when my sister and brother-in-law popped over with presents. [...]
It's my birthday tomorrow which means I've been 50 for a whole year. Like most people I still reel slightly when I have to write my age on a form but other than that, I feel great about it. I've just had one of the best years of my life, not because anything particularly remarkable happened but because everything finally started to make sense. I noticed this new feeling of 'rightness' when I was chatting to my auntie on her [...]
I confess that as we head into another weekend with a forecast of bitter weather, I'm beginning to feel at a bit of a loss as to what to write about. It seems that we're living in Narnia's perpetual winter. Spring has completely stalled up here, the birds are quiet, buds are barely showing on the trees and the skies are many shades of grey. Even I don't feel like shopping when every day is just another jumper day. So [...]
I've had a great week and it's all thanks to you and the very first post that I wrote this year when I was looking for a better way to manage 2018. If you remember, I was feeling as though I was being pulled in too many different directions and not doing anything well. Since then I've been spring cleaning my life whilst incorporating some of the tips you shared and at last I'm starting to see the difference. Lots [...]
(Note to confused overseas readers - Mother's Day or Mothering Sunday is on 11th March in the UK) I've always maintained that Mother's Day is my favourite day of the year. It's better than a birthday because you don't get any older and it's a celebration of the incredible task that we undertake as we help our children grow into decent human beings. For the last 20 years I've been lucky. On Mother's Day my nest has been full and [...]
I've finally managed to plough through the hundreds (yes honestly) of photos we took on our midlife adventure in Transylvania. There's just so much to show you that even after some serious culling there are a lot of them. So I'm going to try to make sure this Ice Hotel Transylvania review isn't too wordy. Join us virtually through the pictures... and even the occasional video. Before I start though, I just want to say that I have two pieces of fashion [...]
It's the time of year when everyone's thoughts turn to love. Whether you like it or not, you are surrounded by hearts and flowers and meal deals for two. I have been endlessly prodded by retailers to create lists of things we should buy to prove to our loves how treasured they are. And as I've been drafting emails in reply, explaining why I'm not running a "50 things to buy your Valentine" post, it's made me think hard about [...]
The best place for a family holiday with teens. I spent a few hours over the weekend wrapping up the final details of our main summer holiday as the sleet hammered down outside. I think I've already mentioned that we've decided to go back to Kalkan, our favourite spot in Turkey. We're aware that our days of school summer holidays are numbered. In fact we only have two more years after this one when we will be tied to the [...]
How to find your purpose at midlife. It's a different kind of post from me today. You see last week I was shaken by the sudden loss of a friend in the village, someone I have known for a long time. She died within days of returning home from a fantastic holiday with her husband and sons. A brain tumour that had given her no warning also gave her no chance. The whole village has been rocked by it and [...]
Hello - and a very Happy January to you all, I hope you've had a wonderful break. We had a lovely couple of weeks off despite being beset by illness and I'll tell you all about it in a 'midlife lately' post next week. In the meantime, I'm just popping up briefly. The boys don't go back to school until Monday and so I'm trying to be around while they're off. You see we were chatting over dinner one night [...]
T'was the week before Christmas... and I looked at my diary only to realise that I have blithely arranged for an awful lot of festive gatherings to take place... all through our house. I'm not quite sure how that happened but I have some serious food prepping to do. So, as I will shortly be mutating from Midlifechic to Midlifechef, my last post will have to be a quick one. I'm starting with a quick winter sale edit because if [...]
Marrakech in 3 days with teenagers. Before we dive fully into Christmas madness, I thought you might like to join me for a few days of sunshine. As you know, we had a little trip to Marrakech last week. It was a plan that we came up with back in the spring when we realised that my 50th birthday was going to be somewhat subdued because it fell, as it has done all of my life, in exam season. Why [...]
I'm following on from my post about leather leggings with a focus on a different type of trouser. You see when I was down in London last week, I gambled on not having to stand up too much in my consultancy sessions. For once, I travelled light without 'street shoes' in my bag. It misfired. I was working with a larger team than expected and so I had to stand to enable everyone to hear (and see) me. We were [...]
On Tuesday I mentioned that I've been challenged to get going with a new midlife health and fitness plan. I have committed to do it until January and today I'm going to tell you more about it. Before I do, I'm just going to cover the reasons why I'm doing it with a quick recap. I have hit an absolute exercise trough. Long term readers know about the car accident I had in December 2014. It wasn't a serious one [...]
As always, it's the small things that get under your skin isn't it? For the last couple of years, as I've descended the stairs I've been aware of a patch of carpet on our landing that has been getting thinner and thinner. Last week, it finally wore through. Of course the £1,000 plus that will be required to replace it is one of the reasons that I've been ignoring it- but it's more than that. The hole in the carpet [...]
Hello, I'm back! It's always a bit strange starting the first post after a holiday. It reminds me of the first day of term when you used to feel a bit nervous about going back to school even though you were going to be reunited with all of your friends. I hope you've had a good few weeks. I'm just going to write one post about our family holiday in Kalkan this time because I'm going away again next week [...]
Hello everyone. I'm just dropping in to share my simple 50th birthday celebrations with you but, before I do, I want to say a huge thank you for every single one of your kind wishes. I felt buffeted by love from every angle on Friday. Whenever I checked my phone there were new messages from different sources and I read every single one. It was absolutely wonderful and I'm so grateful to everyone who took the time to share a moment of the day [...]
So my friends, today's the day. I have achieved my half century. Everyone I've spoken to over the last couple of weeks has been asking me one question - how are you feeling about it? So I thought I'd try to articulate exactly how it feels to reach your 50th birthday. Prepare for one of those long streams of consciousness - it's been a while. You may need to make a cup of tea before you sit down with this [...]
I'm sure you remember the mad week before Christmas. You were desperately trying to finish your Christmas shopping and I was pestering you to vote for me in the UK Blog Awards "readers' round." Well, as you know, your kindness won me a place in the finals and the big event was last weekend. Like most people, I have been to lots of Awards ceremonies. A lot of them were during my years at Selfridges when we were in the process [...]
Happy Tuesday everyone. It looks as though I will be spending a disproportionate amount of time driving this week as I have meetings that range from the Scottish Border right down to the Midlands. So I am putting together a quick post with a few of the things that I have spotted recently that I think you'll like and I'm finishing off with a round up of Mother's Day weekend. Easter This is probably the last stretch of time that we [...]
As you can see, I'm talking about something completely different today. A little while ago I mentioned that I have been having some treatment for a phobia and that I would discuss it when it was completed. Well today's the day. So, let me tell you more about it. My phobia is 'ornophobia' or a fear of birds. It not only covers the idea of them flapping around me or even being in my path when I walk through a [...]
Wow that was quite a response to the last post on midlife loneliness! As I said at the outset, when I receive a cluster of emails on a particular topic, it suggests that something is going on at a wider level. I knew I could count on you to rally around Anna but what I didn't anticipate was the wonderful outpouring of empathy. I'm not going to write a long post today, partly because a power cut has wiped five hours off my [...]
Since Christmas, I've had a few emails from readers about loneliness. When I get a number of emails on a particular topic I take it seriously because I know that for each woman that speaks out, there will be others in the same situation. There is one reader that I've been talking to who I am especially worried about. I have helped her as much as I can and she has asked me to raise loneliness as a topic on Midlifechic to [...]
I had such a horrendous time trying to get down to London through Storm Doris yesterday that I can't quite think straight today. So I'm bringing you one of those posts that pulls together all of the things I've been meaning to tell you about for a while. Actually I think beauty and books are a lovely combination for a thinking woman's weekend! Tried and Tested Beauty Products Now, I'm planning to write a full post on skincare for women over 40 next [...]
I am very pleased to bring you the first of the spotlight posts. It's a big thank you to Baukjen for being the first brand to come on board as part of this series and I'm particularly pleased to be working with someone that I haven't featured before. I have only one Baukjen piece in my wardrobe and it is a jumpsuit that I bought in a hurry after seeing it featured in a magazine last year. For some reason [...]
So, here we, are in the retail hiatus of January when there is very little in the shops worth looking at. That means it's time for us to get into some of the deeper issues you've been asking me to cover - such as what is midlife in the twenty-tens (as this decade is now being called) and how can we age well? It's going to be one of those long posts when you may need a whole pot of tea rather than [...]
Hello and Happy New Year! I know I'm supposed to be full of perky new year's resolutions but I tend to see September as more of a time to start afresh than January. For me the decorations are down, the middle son has already gone back to school and this morning, I faced the scales which led me to a moment of self loathing because I've put on half a stone. However, when I look back at the fantastic Christmas we've had, I [...]
Christmas is easy when they're little isn't it. They believe everything is magical and, although it's physically exhausting, you really don't have to think very hard. But then they grow, their wishes are for bigger things and yet they still dream of the magic so I've been thinking hard about how to have a fun Christmas with teenagers. My boys are utterly resistant to anything changing. For them, Christmas is steeped in tradition and last week we had to break it [...]
Today I am pleased to be introducing you to Lotus, a small UK based shoe brand. Until they got in touch with me, I wasn't aware of them. As you know, at the moment I tend to rely on Boden, Marks and Spencer and occasionally Clarks for my everyday shoes and Jigsaw for the special ones. It's always good to add a new brand to your arsenal, especially when it's an affordable one. A little while ago we talked about [...]
I know a lot of you are facing this as I was last year, the countdown to the day when your son or daughter leaves for university. They will be brimming over with anticipation as you brim with tears of dread. I thought it might be helpful to give you an idea of what to expect, not from an expert point of view, just from a fellow mum who has been through it. It is going to be hard for you, however [...]
So let's get on with the second instalment of "Kefalonia with teenagers." The first week of our holiday flew by. For a change of scene, we hopped onto the ferry that trundled into the harbour every morning and headed over towards the mainland for an afternoon. Prices were about 30% lower than in Fiscardo so we had an especially nice lunch and did a bit of kaftan shopping. The distinctive thrum of a Greek ferry engine transported me right back to [...]
Hello - I'm back, it feels like a long time since I've posted. So - as a lot of you guessed, our mystery destination was Kefalonia in the Ionian Islands. I managed to keep it a secret until a few days before we left when I had to give the boys a small clue in case they read my last post. As it was with you, the one I chose was too easy - Hellas. In an instant they knew [...]
Hurray, it's nearly holiday time for us but before I go, I just want to leave you with one more post to cover off some great beauty products for women over 40. Just to recap, my policy is only to cover beauty products if I can honestly see a difference. If a beauty PR gets in touch with me I make this clear which means there are quite a few things I don't write about. However, here are a few [...]
Despite the fact that it is the UK's second city, until now my view of Birmingham has always been rather negative. The boys know it as the obstacle we have to pass before Mr MC will agree to stop on our journeys to London. I relate it to hellish exhibitions at the NEC - and to the time I got lost in my old banger on the way back to uni and ended up stuck in an endless loop of Spaghetti Junction (I was [...]
I had an email last week from a reader, Sue, asking about how to have a happy family holiday with teenagers. She said “you seem to manage to really enjoy your holidays with your boys. When my two were little I used to look forward to them being bigger, I imagined that holidays would be more relaxing but actually I find them really stressful. Now that they're both teenagers they just seem to be bored and we end up having [...]
I think summer in the city is one of the hardest things to get right sartorially. I'm casting my mind back to my commuting days, heading into the urban heat island of London and seeing the yellow haze of smog hanging over the city as the train approached Waterloo. A hot city is a harsh environment but wearing the right clothes, whether you're a tourist or a native, can make all the difference to how you cope with the day so, summer [...]
As I looked around the plane on the way to Paris, I could see lots of excited little girls dressed as princesses on their way to EuroDisney. I don't think we ever grow out of that fairytale dress dream - although perhaps our tastes become a little more sophisticated and I had the same flame of excitement burning inside me knowing that I had two special dresses in my suitcase. I am now quite often approached with offers of clothing (and [...]
Paris is always a good idea - you'll be pleased to know that our trip was good. So good in fact that I've had to break it up into 3 consecutive posts, Paris by day followed by 2 Parisian nights. So, how do you spend two days in Paris when you already know the city well? You revisit a few of your favourite places and make the rest up as you go along. This was our weekend... When we woke up on [...]
Hello. It's my birthday today. I've had a fabulous morning; my usual breakfast was replaced with a bowl of floral gum sweets (courtesy of the youngest) and I've received a bounty of good wishes from so many people that I feel utterly happy and truly blessed. I have lots of style ideas to talk to you about (and I will end with a list of style posts) but today I'm writing one of my wordy pieces because tomorrow we're going to Paris. I thought [...]
"12 things to do before you're 50 - where did that come from?" you're thinking. Well you see after a disappointing start, we had a surprisingly lovely Bank Holiday weekend. As the weather turned bad, all plans were cancelled but instead we had a series of spontaneous get togethers with close friends and family. They're always the best ones. Of course with it being the first weekend in May, conversations soon turned to my approaching birthday - the last one of [...]
Given that this is primarily a style blog, I was amazed by the interest and debate that my work life balance posts provoked. There are obviously so many of us in one of two positions - struggling to maintain a career and the needs of a family or struggling to find our sense of purpose as an educated stay at home mum. I've been really touched by the many stories that you've shared with me either privately or publicly over [...]
Ta dah! Welcome to the new look Midlifechic. Mr MC has laboured hard so that it would be ready in time for its second birthday but we know there will be glitches. It will take until Saturday 13th to flush through fully in the meantime, if you're reading on Bloglovin please could you view this post directly on my blog here just this once and let me know what you think and also if there are any viewing or technical [...]
We've nearly made it to the end of January which has to be the toughest month. Actually it would have been tougher for me if I hadn't been doing Project Happier - although I've stumbled at times, it's kept me focused. Today is my first day of not working for 12 days and I apologise if you were looking out for my adventure with my reader Sarah on Instagram on Thursday but all my plans had to be changed at the last [...]
Reading your comments I realise you're way ahead of me on this one, Mari Kondo's 'Life Changing Magic of Tidying' arrived last week along with 'Spark Joy' but they're still sitting in their unopened packaging. I had intended to start reading them on the way back from London but I'm still ploughing through Gretchen Rubin's 'Better Than Before'. However, even though I know spark joy is a tool to use in a decluttering sense, the words have been floating around my [...]
Well I'm delighted that so many of you are embracing Project Happier - everyone I talk to seems to like the idea of making small improvements rather than huge changes. The trouble is that it's hard to keep change going. We're only in the second week of January and I can already feel myself being pulled into the Slough of Despond - not the literal Pilgrim's Progress sense of guilt for my sins (I don't have much time to sin) but [...]
So, here we are, in a bright shiny new year, how are you feeling? I usually hate January but I'm feeling really quite excited about the year ahead. I'm full of new ideas for Midlifechic, in the background a stylish makeover is being prepared for the site and I've decided to give my old editorial skills a brush up and start including some new areas for discussion alongside our perennial quest for chic. Lots of you have written to me over [...]
It's a happy day in our house today - it's our wedding anniversary. I have more reason to celebrate than most because my life now is my very own happy ending. As with all good fairytales though, I had to go through a struggle to reach it... ...Shall I tell you the story? Are You sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin... Once upon a time there was a girl who left university with her whole life ahead of her. Even though [...]
So after the electricity meltdown that was Friday, we had digital meltdown on Saturday and Sunday with absolutely no broadband. This is extremely rare in our house. Because I often like to work from home we have 2 lines, just in case, so if one goes down there's always a spare. But no, this weekend we had digital silence. So given that it was my first at home for 7 weeks, I decided to make it a mindful Midlifechic weekend [...]
