Author Archives: theadventuresofthereluctantretiree

It’s just over a year since the lovely night of my Book Celebration – I know because Facebook Memories told me, but I also know because it was just such a special night that it is pinned in my brain. That FB memory has prompted a couple of days of happy reverie, as I lookContinue reading “The Community Of A Book”

Sharing Who Stole Grandma has brought me so many very special days, but today might just be the most special, because today I managed to meet up with a woman who brought so much joy to Moosh’s last few years, through her kindness and care. I hadn’t seen Sabeen since the day Moosh passed away,Continue reading “That Special Someone”

On 19th February, it will be the tenth anniversary of us losing my Mom, ‘Moosh’. I can’t predict what the day will be like, because it is not normally her anniversaries that affect me and (almost all of the time) I’ve moved past the years of painful grief. On the other hand, I do knowContinue reading “Moosh’s Tenth Anniversary”

“Do you believe in messages?” was my sister’s slightly hesitant question, when she rang me last week. Caught with my mind in the midst of other stuff, (probably pondering Steve Gerrard’s fit as Villa’s new manager, OR the doubling of thirty-year-olds amongst our offspring), I utterly failed to pick up on the nuance in theContinue reading “Mom’s Bureau”

Facebook worked its magic on me a moment ago, when this picture popped up in my Memories. This is me, three years ago today, perched on a hillside, looking out over the olive groves from the terrace of my sister’s little piece of Andalusian heaven, pondering, and determinedly typing . . . taking the veryContinue reading “I Just 💜 Facebook Memories!”

After the joy of our Book Celebration at Bear Bookshop, and the success of giving WSG away as an e.book to raise funds for Parkinson’s UK, I wanted to finish off with a challenge that has the potential to keep small donations coming in . . . all charities have been struggling through the pandemicContinue reading “The Tunnock’s Tea Cake Challenge for Parkinson’s UK”

You can download the Kindle e-book of ‘Who Stole Grandma?’ from Amazon completely FREE . . . but, while you are doing so, please consider making a donation to Parkinson’s UK here. ‘Who Stole Grandma?’ is my sharing of our family’s experience of losing my Mom, Moosh, to Parkinson’s Disease, but it is not aContinue reading “WSG Free for 120 Hours for Parkinson’s UK”

It really is all a tad emotional here at Lanyon Manor (aka Maharanijit’s Prosecco Palace) this week. We are a week away from the last week of my fundraising for Parkinson’s UK built around ‘Who Stole Grandma?’ and there have been sniffles, sobs and tears. Tuesday 19th October is the rescheduled date for what weContinue reading “It’s All A Bit Emosh!”

Well, we had just the fabbest Tuesday on the WSG Delivery Tour Of Languedoc, even though it wasn’t even Her Most Wonderfulness and I doing the touring! When we were plotting the route of the tour, we had planned to meet Sally in Carcassonne to the west of Our Little Tin Shed, and Sylvie inContinue reading “A Very Doggy Day On The WSG Tour”

Without expert help Who Stole Grandma? would still be largely unseen on my Facebook blog and sitting unpolished and unread on my laptop. Fortunately for me, the support of friends and of complete strangers encouraged me to self publish and (absolutely crucially) to seek that expert help. In my case the expertise came in theContinue reading “The Importance Of Expert Help (Or How I Came To Be An Amazon Best Seller – For A Few Hours)”