Disappointing Weather and Meeting Good Friends

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It was really disappointing this morning when I opened the blinds to find there hadn’t been the promised overnight snowfall.  I’d envisaged sitting writing by the window, warm and cosy next to the radiator while a white, winter wonderland lay before me through the glass.  Not so!  There was just the thinnest dusting of snow on a couple of the cars which has since disappeared as the sun’s come out – even though it’s very cold.  And to think my friend M and I cancelled our lunchdate at Bluewater because we’d both believed the weatherman!  Never mind, we’ve rescheduled for … Read the rest »

Stop the World, I Want to Get Off!

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More than a week of 2013 has gone by already.  Yet why do I feel as if the world’s moving backwards instead of forwards?  It’s as if we’ve gone back beyond the Dark Ages; as if we’re in the year 1013.  Belfast is ablaze night after night because two branches of the same religion can’t agree about a flag.  I know that’s perhaps over-simplifying and that there are history and politics in play here and not just religion but as someone who’s spiritual but not religious I can’t understand this for the life of me. 

Neither can I understand the … Read the rest »

Joanne C Hillhouse Is Coming to my Blog!

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I am really pleased and excited to announce that the wonderful, award-winning Antiguan writer Joanne C. Hillhouse has agreed to be my guest-blogger over the next few months.  Joanne is a well-known journalist, poet and the author of three novels – Dancng Nude in the Moonlight, the Boy from Willow Bend and Oh, Gad!  I can’t wait to read her first blog – I’ll let you know when it’s coming so WATCH THIS SPACE!!

I’ve been enjoying my wonderful Christmas presents.  Santa was very thoughtful with them and very good to me this year.  I’ve used my slow cooker several … Read the rest »

The End of 2012

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I had a lovely Christmas.

I wasn’t looking forward to it really, as it was going to be the first without Mum.  We’d each, my brother, sister and I, made plans to do things independently of the others, as we knew from experience when Dad died, that the best thing to do is not spend it together as if we did, then we would notice her absence most.  And the day before Christmas Eve we had the disturbing news that my ex-sister-in-law in Ibiza had been re-admitted to hospital – she’s fighting her second bout of cancer and also my … Read the rest »

Sunset over Solos Holidays

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Well, it’s finally over.  After almost thirteen years I’m drawing a line under my relationship with Solos Holidays after losing the Employment Tribunal for Unfair Dismissal that I brought against them on Friday.

Before I go any further I want to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who’s supported me over the last ten months since I was sacked, and for all the messages of good luck, support and commiseration I’ve received in the last few days.  Truly, it’s been humbling and heart-warming to know that in spite of being considered an absolute nothing and nobody by Solos Holidays, … Read the rest »

I’ve Beaten the Spam!

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Hello there!

Well, I know it’s been a while.  You all know that I don’t blog every day, only when I’ve got something to say and it’s not that I haven’t had anything to say for the last twelve days, but rather that I just couldn’t face the barrage of spam messages that came to www.elainespires.co.uk every time I wrote a blog post.  One morning there were fifty-three – yes, that’s FIFTY-THREE!!!! – that had dropped in overnight.  All claiming to have read my blog and “loved it, babe!” or “you make very valid points” or even “your arguementations are … Read the rest »

Brass Monkeys

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Well, since my last blog the temperature’s dropped and we’ve had the first snowfall of the winter here in the Leigh-end of Westcliff.  But, oh boy! it was freezing before the snow fell.  I had a day’s work as an extra and it was the coldest I’ve ever been in my life, without exception, and I’ve been inside the Arctic Circle and to Patagonia!  I thought I’d never get warm again.  Such a contrast to the previous week, filming in Antigua, where it was so hot the makeup was running.  I won’t complain about that again!  The drive home was … Read the rest »

Is it Me? Or I?

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Well, I’ve been back for almost a week, well. five days.  Five frantic, freezing days.  From 30C to 3C.  Bbrrrrr!

Still, my attitude to trips and holidays has become ‘think not with sadness that it is no more, but with gladness that it was’.  And I had a lovely time.

One of the things two long-haul flights and time to myself (sort of!) allowed me to do was catch up on my reading.  I read a couple of great books, a couple of mediocre ones and one that I didn’t enjoy at all.  But one thing that jumped out and … Read the rest »

All Good Things…

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And so, here I am, on the last day of my working holiday in my beautiful Antigua.  Well, it’s the penultimate day, really, but as tomorrow is departure day and it’s usually a round of madness I have to make the most of today.  The time has flown by; it seems as if I’ve only been here eight or nine days and not twenty. but I’ve had fun.

Particular fun was yesterday filming another Amazing Adventures of Maisie and Em trailer.  I don’t want to spoil anything for when you see it (which I know you will!!) but it involved … Read the rest »

Bull and other stuff

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I’ve had to have words with the cowherd. 

I have to point out here that I was the only one having words, as he just grunted.  I’m not sure whether it was in approval or disapproval.  You see, until fairly recently the area that is Five Islands New Development was just open land and so local people used it as their own personal grazing ground for their goats, cattle and horses.  Now that there are houses built, albeit not too many, they still let their animals roam.  Before I had the fence put up I heard a terrible commotion one … Read the rest »