When you’re offered the chance to take a peek behind the scenes of a Formula 1 race team, you leap at it and fortunately for us as a McLaren employee my friend’s husband is able to offer a guided tour for up to four people a year at their high-tech facility in the heart of […]

Errr, probably not. Let’s face it, who can start the day without a cup of coffee? I can’t and drink around four or five every morning (before switching to water and eventually wine). Arguably, coffee is the oil which keeps the office wheels turning and how productive would a meeting be without the coffee? Not […]

So it’s been a while. Eldest university interviews (check); place offered (check); move house (check); on-going administrative nightmare of changing address details (check); A2 exams for eldest (check); uni offer confirmed (check); move eldest to Liverpool (check); holiday (check). No, wait, holiday? Oh yes, no money left for holiday this year! But anyway, I am […]

When you’ve been in the world of work for a fair few years, chances are you’ve experienced a variety of bosses, some exemplary, some appalling, most somewhere in the middle. However, it’s not until your own child enters the workplace, that you become ultra-critical of leadership skills, managerial approaches and staff interaction. Hence, I came […]

When you’re working, Christmas is a stressful time of year, there’s never enough time in the day to prepare and present buying is often last on the list. When you have kids, it’s even worse, there’s school plays, Christmas parties and Christmas fetes. With two teenagers and one pre-teenager to run around, you also end […]

Sainsbury’s has undoubtedly won the battle for the hearts of consumers this Christmas after it broadcast its moving ‘Christmas is for sharing’ ad for the first time last night which recreates the poignant scenes from the World War I trenches when soldiers on both sides downed their weapons and played a game of football on […]

I am a new Lidl convert and as far as I am concerned, there’s no going back. A recent trip to my previous store Sainsbury’s (where a quick shop totted up to an almighty £84) confirmed I was making the right choice. Today’s announcement that Sainsbury’s won’t give up without a fight with £150m worth […]

Talk is cheap but money buys houses (or whiskey); all talk and no action; and talk the talk but don’t walk the walk; I could go on, essentially the message is the same, some people just do and other people just talk. Paying lip service and then doing nothing at all is as old as […]