All posts filed under: Blogging

Doing our bit for Sport Relief

Published by Grenglish

For the last few years, I have joined Team Honk – a group of bloggers who fundraise for Comic and Sport Relief – to raise money for people living in extreme poverty here in the UK and abroad. In 2014, we took a Monopoly-themed tour of London… And, last year we danced for 6 hours non-stop at Wembley… So far, Team Honk has raised almost £100,000 for Comic and Sport Relief and it is incredible to have been a small part of that. This year, we knew we had to do something bigger and better if we wanted to really smash our target. With requests for sponsorship landing in inboxes several times a week, we knew we had to push ourselves out of our comfort zone to get noticed this year. It was my blogging partner in crime, HPMcQ, who came up with the idea of trying to break the world record for visiting the most amount of tube stations in a day. Yes, she is mad, but there is method in her madness – we are both …

Portfolio Working

Published by Grenglish

A portfolio career is something that has intrigued me for a while, but it is really only something I started to put any effort into shaping for myself a few months ago. If you are not familiar with the term, portfolio working is when self-employed individuals work on a wide range of different projects for different clients, rather than for just one employer. A portfolio career has many strands to it and my income comes from part-time employment, freelance work, blogging and running my own business, Yiayia’s Kouzina. I am a slasher – Blogger/Writer/Entrepreneur/PA/Stay-at-home mum. I used to think that jumping from one career aspiration to another meant I still had to work out what it was I really wanted to do. However, now I understand that each of us are made up of many different parts and have many interests, none of which totally define us but without each one we would feel incomplete – we would not be ‘us’ – so, it made sense for me to explore them all. I wanted to find a way to be at home more, to be able to write for …

I Didn’t Win

Published by Grenglish

I am always telling my son that not everything is about winning or losing, and sometimes the biggest enjoyment can come just from the thrill of the race. This is usually when he is not the first of his friends to run to the bottom of the hill after school. Or, when he throws a strop because I beat him in a game of snakes & ladders or Connect 4. He does not like to lose, but I try to help him understand that losing can be good for you. It can make you better, stronger and more determined. Losing can make you try harder next time. This is something seasoned losers like myself often say. I did not win a blogging award this weekend. This is not unusual. I have been a finalist in the Brilliance in Blogging Awards, the bloggers’ equivalent to the Oscars, before. But this was my first time in the Writer category; a category I would not have even had the confidence to appreciate a year ago. It’s the big one. If this were the actual Oscars, I suppose it might be like being …

Are you a Radiator or a Drain online?

Published by Grenglish

I think it was Oprah Winfrey who once said that people can be divided into two camps – radiators and drains. Radiators beam warmth, kindness, love, happiness and enthusiasm. They smile when you walk into a room, are genuinely interested in others and make you feel good about yourself. Radiators bring out the very best in people. Drains have a more negative outlook on life and their glass is always half-empty. They can be self-absorbed, demanding and will often TAKE TAKE TAKE without ever giving anything back. Drains zap your energy levels with their constant need for reassurance and leave you feeling totally diminished. Drains are toxic. Over the years, I like to think I have got pretty good at differentiating between the two and tend to steer clear of mood hoovers. However, I have been less careful about letting drains into my online world and I have recently noticed that my timeline has become infested with them. Online drains take to twitter to complain that someone else just got sent a packet of biscuits and they did not. They DM people to ask how they got …