Life of Lu

It is that time of the year again, my sister's anniversary. 12 years since we bid her farewell. Well, tomorrow is her anniversary but I am having a very lazy morning and as a result I am writing this today. For the past 11 years, the entire month of November has been a struggle for me. In the beginning it was a raw struggle. Every single day from the 10th (her birthday) to the 29th (her anniversary) was like a hot blade slicing through my heart. I think it is because the loneliness of not having her with us to celebrate her birthday is intensified by the fact that her anniversary is so close, and there is an awareness and an emotional surge in the three weeks between that just lingers in my subconscious. Now, I definitely do become very low for those three weeks, but it is much easier to bounce out of it as we approach the anniversary and I realise that my irrationality of the last three weeks was simply bottled up emotion from the remaining 49 weeks of the year. This year

I spent the last two weekends in Glasgow with my friends. Two weekends off in the lead up to Christmas I hear you say? A store manager who is away from her store in this peak period. Yes. I was off. I booked it at my interview and I loved every second of it. Last weekend I went to see Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats in Barrowlands. If you ever get the opportunity to see them play, do. They are superb. It was such a great weekend.  I got to catch up with Craig and Mark. I got to twirl. I got to just chill out with some of my favourite people and it was amazing. This weekend, my pal Iain and I went to Glasgow to see the Courteeners. It was such an amazing weekend. We found tayto (they were NI version but still a tasty surprise), an amazing wee restaurant in the West End that does a mean steak, we hit Brewdog and Innis and Gunn, got to play with a puppy called Molly,  saw the gig, had chicken pakora on the way home. I got to meet my Glaswegian adopted brother who gave me

Aubrey sat with her back to the other children trying her hardest to ignore their shenanigans. She had been warned not to let them stir any trouble that day. She had been warned not to let them spoil their dinners. Her pleas and warnings to her siblings to behave had fallen on deaf ears. What child in their right mind would give up the chance to go blackberry picking on a sunny day? Knowing that her protests would be futile against the promise of an afternoon of luscious berry tasting, Aubrey had set down a few rules. Rule one. All berry picking was to be done by the stream so that hands and faces could be washed quickly if an unwanted visitor or parent happened upon them. Rule two. No berry was to be placed inside any garment of clothing due to staining Rule three. No berries were to be eaten within her eyesight so that she could honestly say that she had not seen the children eat a single berry. Aubrey sat on a mossy rock, her bare feet dangling in the cool waters of the b

Joanna stepped out of the car gingerly. Any second now they would see her. They would gasp at her fragility, regret the detestable way in which they had treated her over these past twelve months, and rush to her side hoping for forgiveness. A smile threatened to pucker her lips. She stopped it instantly, lowered her head and drooped into what she hoped was a timid frame. Her whole family would be there. She was certain of it. This was the night that they would realise that they had done wrong by her. This was the night that she would again get the sympathy that she deserved. The steps up to the entrance of the town hall  were steep. From the bottom Joanna could hear the babble of excited voices. It was hardly surprising. It isn't very often that a sleepy town like Adderfield hosts a world premier with famous people from Hollywood in attendance. It isn't very often that a native of Adderfield hits the headlines of national papers. Panting, she reached the top step. It was comm