Is there more illness and misfortune about these days, or do we just make more of a song and dance about it when it comes our way?

Aahhh! Spring, spring, glorious spring! Of course there’s always a risk of getting caught out with a cheeky frost yet, such are the wonderful weather foibles of our funny old country.

It takes a special sort of woman to stand beside her man when he has publicly shamed and humiliated her.

I’m hearing much griping about Shropshire’s slow broadband speeds – try living in Powys, where we suffer excruciating broadband speeds and pay through the nose for them too!

We spend a lot of time criticising hospitals and health authorities when they refuse to provide expensive new drugs to patients in desperate need.

I’m not normally one to jump on the benefits bandwagon, deciding who may or may not be ill enough to justifiably accept disability payments.

I’ve got a good one for you this week – insurance. It’s one word guaranteed to make even the most honest and morally upright among us quake in our sensible, flat-heeled shoes writes Emma Suddaby.

One of the things I love about going on holiday, and the reason I always try to visit somewhere new if possible, is getting the chance to see how other people live, writes Shropshire Star blogger Emma Suddaby.

Will wonders never cease? I’m happy to report that my recent absence from your teatime routine had nothing to do with my usual medical quagmire and everything to do with sunning myself under African skies – two weeks in The Gorgeous Gambia and I’m refreshed, full of zest and raring to get ranting!

So here we are, slap bang in the middle of yule, still tucked snugly into the one bit of the year where time doesn’t matter and indulgence is the name of the game writes Emma Suddaby.

Some call it determination, writes blogger Emma Suddaby, some just plain pig-headedness. Some call it a stubborn streak . . . but whatever term you prefer to use, I’ve got it in spades – that’s what living with a degenerative illness does for you, as I’m sure many others can agree.

It’s official– financial experts are finally admitting what we already knew, things are getting worse not better …newsflash…