I try where possible to help with research whenever I can at my hospital of excellence UCLH. It is a teaching hospital and research is a valuable part of their every day work.

I have just had an article published on this subject within the UCL BioResearch Newsletter -link to follow.

Where possible I would encourage others to consider donating blood or urine samples to help with research it is so vital to the crucial work these amazing professionals do and just think this research could be helping someone you love some day.

Please bear this in mind and help where you can.

There is no escaping from it, and a fellow brave woman campaigning this year reminded me of the fun I had running in a local election.Talking at times through letterbox…lamb to a slaughter and even chased by a dog!

All joking aside it saddened me then, as it does now just how many young people were abstaining from voting, and as my own daughter has the joy of casting her first vote this year – I have no idea what advice to give her it has become a fiasco for sure.

Knowing I have always been active politically I believe she values my opinion but this time I am at a loss, they all promise, some even plan to deliver….but!

What amused, if not at times infuriated me during my experience was just how many people will confuse national and local politics and just vote blue/red/yellow or any other team because it’s what they always do.

Whereas, locally please, please, please vote for the candidate that will really work for the good of your community rather than take credit for what others do and love a photo opportunity…yes we all know who they are.

Misspent youth I voted conservative, moved to lib dems, now locally I chose to place my time with the independent team as they have no hidden agenda or party line to tow but just get on with it. If I am honest the older I get I think I belong to the Raving Looney Party!

Trip to the dentist  went well, no treatment but confessed to having sensitive teeth, so was handed a handbag size of toothpaste especially for sensitive teeth…’is this a sign of getting old ?‘ I asked. A wide grin showing gleaming white perfect teeth was the only response!

The English language is so funny at times especially for those that  adopt it as their second language. Writers however, have great fun in playing on words, it’s part of my quirky sense of humour and gets my agent laughing…at least…having sensitive teeth does that mean best not to be rude to them but treat them well?

We both decided today that these quips are sometimes really useful and I should perhaps seek employment as Title woman…as I so often joke ‘that would be a good title for a book.’

Meanwhile finding a title for next my project ‘Kissing’ is proving more difficult, but the research is so much fun. Found out today that; ‘kissing actually helps reduce oral plaque as it produces saliva –my dentist recommends it. lol’ 

Life at times can be very difficult and some days there appears that there is nothing to laugh about. I guess I am quite lucky as I am able to laugh at myself and that in turn cheers people up.

There’s nothing quite like the sound of hearing a good friend chuckle down the phone or even make monkey like noises as they try to stifle the start of what you know is a belly laugh waiting to escape.

My first meeting of the day was with my Accountant who always makes me laugh -mainly as this is also my older brother and he has the job of ensuring I don’t do any daft…or too daft!

My second was with a wonderful man who will know who he is when reading this blog. He is one of the beautiful people that now and then one is fortunate enough to meet and restores one’s faith in mankind…literally.  He is also a monkey impersonator who makes me giggle.

As my mentor used to say laughing is as good as a tonic, true friends can make you laugh and are happy to let you cry, and can equally make you cry with laughter.

Off to the dentist for some laughing gas.

Glorious Monday morning, listening to music at my lap top, cat purring by my side. Bliss. Here’s to a productive week for my writing colleagues and fellow freelancers.

If we ignore the news, politics and world tragedies we can all pretend life is good and just be! Just until ten clock perhaps.

On the 23rd of this month it will one hundred years since Rupert Brooke died.  Fitting perhaps that ‘The Second I saw you:The true love story of Rupert’ Brooke and Phyllis Gardner’  by Lorna C Beckett is being published by the British Library to mark the occasion.

I am fortunate to have a collector’s item of a beautiful book of his works published 1915 by Sidgwick and Jackson. The pages are so thick they are almost cardboard in texture and smell wonderful…but are no where near as wonderful as his beautiful poems. It includes an amazing photograph of him taken in 1913 and protected by a (somewhat now brown in colour) piece of tissue-paper. How fortunate am I?

I have stumbled across two equally beautiful publications of his over the years, the first went to a boyfriend who was a hopeless romantic….

The Busy Heart -‘Now that we’ve done our best and worst, and parted, I would fill my mind with thoughts that will not rend.’ Rupert  Brooke© 

and the second to a minister friend who continues to be a great mentor to me.

The Soldier ‘If I should die, think only this of me; That there’s some corner of a foreign field. That is for ever England.’  Rupert  Brooke© .

This book….I would run to save in a fire.

How many of us have stayed in a job or a relationship far longer than was better for us? Most of us would have given things ‘our best shot’ more than once and so often it is not until we have left the job or relationship that we fully realise how we were being held back emotionally and/or creatively.

I was discussing this earlier today with a close friend and we agreed that being the other side, with freedom to think and consider new challenges is a great feeling. What some would see as a risk – for the more daring is just taking life firmly by the hand and enjoying the next adventure that life has mapped out for us.

We all get trapped in trying to please those around us, with good intentions and a sense of loyalty but now and then, thinking on your feet and admitting what your own needs truly represent and what your next goal maybe is invigorating. Mysteriously, (so it seems to others) is just how easily these can be achieved when we set our minds to it.

Listen to our hearts and listen to what we might say out loud – without knowing a good friend is listening and able to repeat  back to you that you have just said ‘yes, I am going to do this…..’

So at midday today a challenging decision is nearer to becoming a reality!

In my other life as a quality consultant I have seen how people are scared and fight against change, concerned about how it will affect them and often approach it with scepticism and fear.

I have witnessed how staff have reacted when companies have been bought out; their job prospects, pay structure and working conditions are both improved and safer ….yet they have still acted hostile.

Is it fear of the unknown or is it some of us just don’t like change to our routine? Life evolves naturally and opportunities come along – how we embrace them may change our lives beyond recognition but perhaps that was meant to be.

My Mother used to frequently say ‘change is as good as a rest’ and I see that now in doing something different it can rejuvenate us even if that change is outside our comfort zone.

Nothing ventured nothing gained – another pearl of wisdom.

Today’s tip: Take a chance on life if it is willing to gamble on you.

How many of us have heard a piece of music or smelt a fragrance and been transported back in time to a memory? These are known as cascading reminiscent bumps or triggers.

The passage through grief is a difficult one; grief is not black and white and the stages overlap and entwine with one another. Elements of those phases will come back and haunt us on a regular basis and often when we least expect it.

When I ran a writers group many years ago and asked my writers to write about their senses for homework the results were amazing. Many chose to write about smells which reminded them of loved ones they had lost…myself included.

Often these ‘bumps’ return us to fond memories of childhood the halcyon days as do tastes. Only last night I tucked into a bag of Propercorn -sweet coconut and vanilla flavoured popcorn and was transported back to fond memories of being a child…home made coconut cake, smell of vanilla essence and popcorn! In those days we didn’t have the amazing varieties of flavours or Belgium chocolate covered popcorn either! …But it still tasted good.

* Above includes exerts from recent book and articles.