22/08/2026
Superstition has it that, when any healthcare professional utters the word "quiet", work suddenly becomes busy. So it is with us - last week was pretty quiet overall, but as soon as we said as much to each other, the bookings started flying in for next week. When I woke up this morning we were fully booked for Monday and Tuesday. I've now extended our clinics, so we have availability again - though one of the new appointments was booked in the time it took me to write this post 😂
(As a staunch advocate of evidence-based medicine, I feel obliged to point out that the Q-word phenomenon has been investigated and disproved: https://emj.bmj.com/content/27/Suppl_1/A11.2)
Mercifully we only have a week and a half of the summer holidays left! As you know, I'm a keen believer in supporting other local businesses, so I wanted to recommend a couple of the fab activities we've done this holiday:
Firstly, during term-time Edward and Cara really enjoy the after school art class that Andrea Dell Art runs at their school. When we found out that she was offering parent-and-child holiday sessions we booked one straight away (Lyn Ryan kindly took them along as we were both working). They loved it so much we've now booked another session next week. If you have a child or grandchild who loves to be creative, do have a look!
Secondly, I've previously found that our two spend most of the autumn term re-learning everything they've forgotten over the summer holidays. So when we heard that Novel Readers Tuition was running summer phonics classes around the corner from my parents' home in Birkdale we couldn't sign them up fast enough! Both children absolutely love the sessions (they attend different groups due to their age gap) and it's wonderful to see them actually make progress in the holidays rather than go backwards. There are still spaces in both groups, so do contact Michelle if you're interested.
I would be very interested in your recommendations - please comment with details if your children/grandchildren have enjoyed a local club or activity this summer!
