Pick Me Up! 25-Mar-2021

Since the age of just 18, I have dedicated my career to helping others. Working in the NHS for 40 years, I loved my job, but at the age of 61, I embraced retirement. However, as my husband Nick, now 71, was in the RAF for 30 years, I couldn’t refuse when I was asked to count money for the Poppy Appeal. ‘Have you thought about doing any volunteering now you’re retired?’ the chap counting next to me asked. To be honest – I had. Whilst Nick was stationed in Germany, The Armed Forces Charity SSAFA had helped me a lot when giving birth to my daughter in 1976. Since then, I’d always considered volunteering for them, but I hadn’t had the time. Only, later that very day, I received…

Do you have secret family recipes? What a great idea! Mum’s lasagne, Dad’s roast ham, those obscenely delicious gooey brownies your nan bakes – do you ever wish you had your own recipe book to properly document these culinary masterpieces? Now you can make your own! With Firebox’s My Family Cookbook, you can finally archive generations of secret recipes and keep your favourite dishes in the family tree. This clever cookbook is a blank canvas featuring 80 template pages, each one with plenty of room for ingredient lists and long-winded, superstitious methods and tips. There’s even space for a couple of photos of the finished dish and the master chef who created it. Take a pinch of nostalgia. Time to beg your family to part with their trade secrets! Prices start at £40. • My…

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THE BIG READ Flicking my shoes off, I flopped onto the sofa after a long day at work at the fairground. Living in Frankfurt, it was a tourist hotspot, so it was always busy. Now home, in May 2012, I flicked on the TV and grabbed my phone. Flicking through my Pink Cupid dating app, I noticed I had a message. I wonder who it could be, I thought, as I loaded up the chat. It was from a woman named Ilana, now 52, who lived over 900 miles away in Wales, UK! I’d liked her picture a few days earlier, but as I hadn’t paid for the app, I was unable to message her. Hello, how are you? she had asked me. Browsing through her profile, I felt drawn…

As soon as I arrived, the other woman started hurling abuse at me. It was the same woman who had sent me nasty messages. ‘You’re a terrible wife!’ ‘You’re a bad person!’ And Brandon just sat there, not saying anything. Deciding enough was enough, I got in the car to go. ‘I need to be on my own and get myself together,’ Brandon sighed on the journey home. ‘Yes, you do,’ I snapped. The rest of the drive was filled with silent rage. I couldn’t bring myself to say anything. Brandon didn’t need to tell me he was having an affair. I knew. After everything – how could he do this to me? I’d supported him in his decision to transition and had always been there for him. After that,…

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