BLOGetc

Move over ‘hygge’; it’s time for ‘live lagom’. I’ve been chosen to participate in the Live Lagom project in Norwich, led by sustainability charity Hubbub and IKEA, to help create an active community of ‘lagomers’, and to learn and share ways to be sustainable at home. It’s a Swedish philosophy that means ‘just the right amount’. I’ll be looking at ways that our family of 3 (plus 1 grumpy cat) can #LiveLAGOM in our 3-bed terraced house. Our kitchen is without doubt the place we spend the most time. It’s not because I love slaving over a hot stove; HELL no, it’s so that myself and daughter can sample the culinary masterpieces of our in-house chef (aka shoulder-to-cry-on/daddy). When he’s not designing something cool, Neil (@typographic) can almost certainly be found at the stove, throwing together some delicious street food-inspired dish. Whether it’s energy, food or packaging; the kitchen is where our family uses the most and where we can definitely be doing more to reduce wast...

Quite by chance I recently found myself residing in the Oud-West district of Amsterdam in a wonderful Airbnb, owned by a Dutch writer with a penchant for colour-coded bookshelves. Pitched as a quiet residential area, in an area known as De Baarsjes, I had low expectations yet little did I know that Amsterdam West is having a bit of a moment.   Once dubbed an industrial badland, the area is now thriving with students and young professional attracted to the area’s cheap rents; you only have to walk along the streets of Jan Pieter Heijestraat and Admiraal the Ruijterweg to find an interesting mix of independent stores and foodie hotspots housed in stunning examples of Amsterdam School architecture.  Perhaps one of the most diverse neighbourhoods in Amsterdam, organic delis and trendy concept stores fraternise with Turkish mini-marts and Surinamese takeaways. It’s got a community-orientated laid-back vibe that’s hard to beat. There’s plenty a terrace to sit out on a...

Admit it – room service is for wimps. We’ve all been there – straight off the red-eye with a rumbling belly yet too jet-lagged to speak in proper English let alone the local dialect – we reach for the room service menu and hit 3. Really what we should be doing is hot footing it to the nearest street food stall for your first taste of paradise.  Squatted on a tiny plastic stool on a random street corner slurping steaming noodles; there’s no better way to immerse yourself in local life and get to the heart of a country’s cuisine. Quite often it’s the food I recall most vividly from a trip, and an experience I search out time and again. From Thai moo ping to Mexican elote, whichever itinerant cook you visit, what you are guaranteed is simple, authentic food cooked to perfection right in front of you. And as they are cooking it day after day, for hours on end, they know what they are doing. But for the wary or uninitiated traveller, knowing where to go and what to ...

I wish more people knew that acupuncture doesn’t have to be expensive to be effective.  As a migraineur and chronic headache sufferer, discovering acupuncture in my mid 30s was a real game changer. While treatment rarely keeps me pain-free for more than 10 days, regular sessions give me welcome relief from constant low level pain. But with   a private acupuncture session costing up to £60 per hour, it was never going to be an affordable long term option for me. It’s thanks to community acupuncture that I can continue to have treatment on a regular basis. At a multi-bed clinic you’re treated at the same time as other clients in an open plan treatment room. While you don’t get the undivided attention of your practitioner, in terms of treatment it’s really no different to a private consultation. Arrive at your allotted time slot,  jump on the bed, briefly talk over your ailments and the acupuncturist gets to work sorting them out. Once the needles are in, you’re left to...

If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you’ll know that I love to travel: I’m never happier than when planning the next escape to some far-flung country. Well this summer, we decided to stay in Norfolk for a ... wait for it... staycation, yeah that extremely annoying word coined to make you feel better about the fact you’re very very skint and need to stay right where you are baby.  Then this Brexit shamble happened I got even more twitchy about staying on home soil. Thankfully that weekend I managed to escape to a field near Swaffham with likeminded friends and their families in tow. Pitched up a tent in a wildflower meadow, sat round a huge open fire putting the world to rights late into the night. The kids ran wild and the parents got to party en masse; I hadn’t felt this content in ages. Once I’d found the winning formula we didn’t need to leave the county for six weeks – find a squad, book a pitch and pray the weather behaves. You’re welcome. One of the highlig...

While putting together an Introduction to Proofreading workshop for a client, a few questions came up that I wanted to share. What’s the difference between copy-editing and proofreading? There’s a huge difference, so make sure you know before you commission any work! Think of proofreading as the absolute final stage of the publishing process, after the author, editor and designer have done their jobs – a fresh pair of eyes to spot any mistakes others might have missed. A proofreader generally checks to ensure that:   Text matches the original Page numbers and headings are correct Spelling and other aspects, such as use of capital letters, are consistent Chapter headings match the contents table   Photos and illustrations are correctly captioned. If you require copy, images or layout to be checked for house style, you need copy-editing . A copy-editor will ensure that all text is in line with the publisher or organisation’s house style and t...

I wrote a 5-min short exploring the theme of 'Belonging', inspired by my recent initiation into the dog-walking world (with a friend's wonderful dachshund), where I encountered so many fascinating characters on my morning walks. Now I'm tempted by a furry friend of my own! FOLLOW MY LEAD FADE IN INT BEDSIT – DAY Light barely filters through the tobacco-stained curtains of a litter-strewn bedsit. Slumped in a broken-in settee SNORING is RICH, 35, a socially awkward gamer, a PS2 controller rests on his protruding belly. EXT BEDSIT – FRONT DOORSTEP – CONTINUOUS A persistent KNOCKING starts to stir Rich from his junk food induced coma. LUCY, a multi-tasking yummy mummy, SHOUTS through the letterbox; piles of junk mail thud to the floor as she releases the flap. EXT BEDSIT – FRONT DOORSTEP – CONTINUOUS Staggering to the door in a daze, Rich opens it just enough to meet his sister’s concerned gaze. RICH (rubbing drool from his mouth) Hey. LUCY Hey...