Since my last posts regarding my brother and his alcoholism, a lot has changed. For a good few months I had distanced myself from him, before eventually softening and allowing him (limited) access to me and my children (which I am deeply and profoundly grateful that I did – more on that later). He had moved from my parents house (well, was pushed) into a shared house around 10 minutes away, and had found himself (we thought) a new job that he was doing well with. For all intents and purposes, we all felt he was on a better track, despite knowing, deep down, that he was still drinking. On Wedne ..read more

Life feels very tough at the moment. It has been a long time since I have taken the time to actually sit down and write out how I am feeling, but tonight I reached the point where, after 7 years “free” from self harm, I could feel my strength and resolve waning. Please, feel free to switch off if you aren’t ready to read through a self indulgent post, but I need to put this down somewhere and I figured my blog might be the best place. In August, my mum retired from the family business. As you will know if you have followed the blog for a long time, she started the company 30 years ago and I jo ..read more