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A brief history of (my) blogging

Beginnings.... Born and brought up in Lancashire, I’m a Northern Lass at heart, although also very much in touch with my Dad’s Welsh roots especially when it comes to rugby. At school I was definitely much more “nerd” than “in-crowd”; doing extra maths homework and reading everything I could. My school-level sporting successes were limited to a single house point for the high jump! University took me from Clitheroe to Leicester, then Lancaster, then Stirling, where I completed my PhD (although am apparently quite normal for a mathematician). In 1999 and 2000, I went on my first solo backpacking adventures to Malaysia and then New Zealand; I have still have my handwritten travel diaries from both trips. Over the next few years, I continued to travel from my base in London, where I was working as a management consultant, and started to document my adventures in my first blog (no longer accessible unfortunately). ​



Big changes.... In 2008, I went back to New Zealand and life took a dramatic twist, which eventually brought me to Stoke-on-Trent, a house by the canal and a wedding in 2009. I started making greetings cards in 2011, as a fundraising challenge when my Dad and Mother-in-Law were both being treated for cancer, and also took up running with the original aim of completing the Race for Life. 5k soon became 10k, then half marathons and in 2013, I completed my first marathon. I’ve since gone on to complete ultra marathons and many other running challenges but focus on finish lines rather than finish times (most of the time anyway).


I also got involved in parkrun and became Co-Event Director at Hanley in 2013 and a parkrun Ambassador in 2016, volunteering to help other parkruns get started. I’m Chair of Potters Trotters Running Ladies Running Club and qualified as a Level 2 Coach in Running Fitness in 2017. Workwise, I’ve swapped freelancing for a permanent role at Staffordshire University in student recruitment, so I’m almost back to my academic roots. I’m a champion for physical activity (according to the local council anyway).


The stories... I love cake. I love running. I love helping other people achieve their running goals. I love travelling. I love trains. I love taking photographs. I love parkrun. I love being a parkrun ambassador. I love crazy golf. I love cricket. I love listening to the Tailenders podcast. I love live music. I love cocktails. I love designing and making cards. I love solving mathematic problems. I love watching the clouds. I love penguins. I love my view of the bottle kilns.


I love spending time with friends and family. I love exploring. I love reading. I love learning. I love being inspired. I love a healthy debate. I love challenging myself to step out of my comfort zone. I try very hard to be brave enough. There are plenty of things I don’t love – intolerance, rudeness, injustice, lying, spiders, Brussels sprouts, most of 2020 and lots of 2021 too – but I try not to let them take over my thoughts.

I love writing and I usually write about the things that I love.

I write as I talk and sometimes remember to pause for breath.


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