Gael's Blog

            In my country this week we have been celebrating. It was our Queen’s 90th birthday, the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare …… and, my own quite ordinary birthday! I love celebrations and I believe they are great confidence boosters.  I am not someone who enjoys big crowd events, so I watched […]

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  February in the UK is a tough month for morale.  The weather is often dark and dismal and the friendliness of Christmas has disappeared into the distance.  Spring flowers, blossom and encouraging green shoots will soon help to lift most of us out of our blues.  During this next month, however, people who are […]

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    When I got back at the beginning of last week from our stay in Hong Kong, I noticed that the beautiful magnolia tree that I see from our office window was almost ready to break into flower. Instead of being thrilled (as I usually am), I was dismayed.  I said to my husband […]

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          Apologies for not sending out any Confidence Challenges for the last couple of months. I have just been so busy. This week’s news about the terrorist attacks in Paris has sent shock waves through Europe and many other regions in the world. Wherever I have been, I have encountered people […]

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  My husband and I spent a lovely relaxing break yesterday in Richmond. It was a beautiful sunny day with a good breeze so an ideal climate for enjoying being outside. In the UK, when we have days like this, everyone seizes the opportunity to go out and about, so the riverside was teeming with […]

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    This June blog is very late and you may have noticed that I missed May too! There have been many reasons why recently I have not been able to write when I had expected to be able to do so. The main one was that our daughter decided to get married and only […]

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  I’m a worrier. This confession will come as no surprise to my family and close friends. Others, who know me less intimately, would probably never use this label to describe me. By and large, they would have only seen my  ‘reformed worrier’ in action. She might not always be smiling, but she wouldn’t be […]

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  Last week I heard a lovely Valentine story, which gave me the idea for this month’s Confidence Challenge. Just hearing it, I felt uplifted so I hope you will too. A few days ago, I rang an elderly friend of mine who has been very unwell for a number of weeks. She lives on […]

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