Why this week's newsletter isn't.....

.....a newsletter, that is. Or at least, not the usual one.

Jul 14, 2023

Hi there

Blimey. It’s been a bit of a week.

Since I wrote last week’s newsletter, I’ve been on a day-long retreat at a beautiful estate called Wasing in Berkshire together with a fabulous group of women from Noon (the website and community I work with as Editorial Director), where we started the day doing this

Then walked through the ancient woodland

To this magical spot

Where we all swam in the brackish, gloriously bracing water.

And after lunch, headed back through the woodland to spend the final couple of hours sharing a powerfully intimate, open and supportive conversation in the shade of a huge (I would die happy if I was able to name what sort of) tree

I spent the following day helping my daughter prepare to move house, and then began preparing in earnest myself for a project I can’t wait to be able to tell you about, which took up the next two days and involved doing this

and this

The day after all of that (and I promise I’ll be less mysterious about it the very minute I can) was taken up with the final meeting of my decade as a trustee of the International Longevity Centre, the leading authority on the impact of increasing longevity on society.

I’m sad to be leaving behind the colleagues who have become treasured friends over those 10 years, and about not being involved in the same way in the important work the ILC does, but it’s definitely time to move on, to make way for new blood on the board and hopefully to find some other organisation in due course, where I can play a useful part (do let me know if you know of one).

Then today, I’ve been with aforementioned daughter in her new home, helping her and her husband to get it unpacked and organised enough for my two little grandgirls - aged nearly 4 and 2 - to join them. Because, oh yes, I forgot to mention, they’ve been staying with me whilst the move was happening! (Just to be clear - they’re at nursery during the day. I haven’t just left them home alone with instructions for how to work the microwave).

So you see what I mean when I say it’s been something of a week?

The thing is, what with all that going on, I not only haven’t had a moment to spare to write a blog, but I’m typing this at 1030 on Thursday night, feeling more than a tad knackered, in a slightly frantic attempt to have at least something to send to your inbox tomorrow morning at 9am as usual.

All of which might just constitute the longest I’m-sorry-I-haven’t-done-my-homework excuse I’ve ever given.

If you’ve stuck it out this far, well done and thank you.

Your reward is the promise - or threat depending on your view - that normal service will be resumed next week.

See you then