Women’s Business Awards

Great news – this year’s Women’s Business Awards are now open for nomination. You are very welcome to enter yourself and nominate others. This is the highlight of our year where we get to celebrate each other either online in our Virtual Awards or in person at one of our county conferences. Make someone’s day and nominate them, they will be so grateful, it could really make their day!  Find out more and enter here.

UK Budget 2021: A Summary of the Key Points

I’m not sure if this is of interest to you but tomorrow we will be discussing today’s budget announcement and how it will affect you and your business or charity! CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO In the meantime, here are some brief points compiled by Karen Waters ✅ Furlough Extended ✅ SEISS extended and will use 2020 return (yay!) ❌Corp Tax increased to 25% from 2023 but not for smaller profit businesses who remain at 19% tapering up from 50k to 250k. ✅Restart grants in […]

Furlough Diary Day 100 – The Hard Work of Rest

You might have a little chuckle at this but I am finding it really hard work to rest! It’s so much easier to be mindlessly busy than it is to slow down and do as little as possible. In my case, I am trying to be on devices less and do more peaceful activities, but boy oh boy is it tricky to get off of devices. I didn’t realise how much of my life is based around looking at a screen and how much I […]

Menopause Musings: Stress-Free Living – Top Tip #1

Top Tip #1 – Create buffers between events “I’m going to be late!” Rush, rush, rush! There are only 3 minutes left, I’m going to be late. Brush hair and teeth simultaneously, shout instructions to kids while dressing, and try to remember the name of the people I’m meeting. Jump in the car and race off while calling my PA for the postcode to put in my SatNav and let her know of all the half-done tasks left open on my computer. That was me, […]

Healthy Granola Bar Recipe

For some time I have been bored with what I eat for breakfast and don’t have the motivation to make the food I would want to eat in the morning, so I decided to make some healthy granola bars to kickstart my day. Here is my recipe which is nice and easy, you can’t really flop this one so enjoy. Ingredients:2 cups rolled oats75g almonds flakes40g sunflower seeds4T  honey6T almond butter10 Medjool dates50g  dried apricots50g dried cranberries2t ground cinnamonpinch of sea salt Method: Preheat the […]

Winchcombe Walk #5 – Belas Knap

As a furlough/sabbatical/menopausal hobby I’ve decided to do all 22 of the Winchcombe Walks. What a beautiful way to rest and de-stress especially with all the beautiful sunshine we have had lately. The Winchcombe Welcomes Walkers website is very well laid out with maps and excellent directions, making it easy enough to go exploring. Since the bluebells are out we decided to start with Walk # 5 to Belas Knap. We started from our home and walked along the lovely River Isbourne, a slight detour […]

Furlough Diary Final Day – I’m Coming Out

I’m coming out, it’s time to be brutally honest. As I said in my previous musing, I’ve taken this Furlough as an opportunity for a much needed Sabbatical. What I didn’t tell you was that there is so much more to this story than I’m able to share, but I will try to share an overview with you here today. I’ve always seen myself as one on a journey from a worm into a butterfly. I’m fascinated by metamorphosis and the fact that an ugly […]

Furlough Diary Day 9 – Confession

I’ve decided to come clean! Here is my confession. I mean no disrespect to those who are struggling, dealing with the loss of a loved one or are in despair. This is purely based on my life and my experience with Covid-19. I am in SUCH A GOOD PLACE! In fact, I can’t remember when last I was in such a place, perhaps 1991. Naturally, the sunshine makes everything a little better and everyone a lot happier. As far as lifestyle goes, this is utopia […]

Furlough Diary Day #? – Sunshine, Sheep and Junk Food

It seems a bit soon for me to be losing track of time but honestly I am! Technically I only started furlough on 7th so today is only really day, 3 but time seems to have lost all meaning already, so I am definitely going to put some routine in place next week. Also, what’s all this eating about? I’m usually a disciplined and healthy eater but now I’m eating so much junk for no real reason! Definitely going to stop this nonsense next week […]

Furlough Diary Day 1 – Letting Go

It’s been really tough letting go. I’ve put my ‘out of office’ on but keep checking one last time before I close my email. I’ve checked and rechecked that the team know what to do and that all the automated systems are working. I’ve streamlined as much as possible which is refreshing and will make everything work so many better going forward. So already, good has come out of this and I know much more good is to come. Tomorrow is the big day and […]

My Furlough Diary

It’s been just over a month since Covid-19 became a reality to us. Cases started popping up in the UK from January 2020 but it’s only really in the past month that we have had to face the reality of this global situation. It’s all still a bit surreal and at times feels more like we’re in a sci-fi movie than living in the present reality. Change is all around us and in some cases completely out of control. Change is also an option in […]