Life: A Bird's Eye View

  Health ,  Lifestyle ,  Sober Living Swap Spirits For Spirituality The good thing about being born a human (instead of, say, a bluebottle), is that we are highly intelligent creatures, brimming with thoughts and feelings.  The bad thing about being born a human, is that…well, we are highly intelligent creatures, brimming with thoughts and feelings.  Sometimes all that brain activity, all that emotion, can get a bit overwhelming. Did I say sometimes? I meant most of the time.  Even for an extrovert such as myself, the (mostly self-imposed) pressure to be on the ball: quick-witted, well-mannered, informed and generally just  nice  all the time is exhausting. Working in retail adds to that: the shop floor is like a stage, where you always have to be ‘on’: all-singing, all-dancing – jazz-hands at the ready. Actors. And now we have to be actors in full PPE, ‘smizing’ (corporate speak for ‘smiling with your eyes’) above our masks; dancin...

  Health ,  Lifestyle ,  Sober Living (Wo)man In The Mirror ‘I’m starting with the woman in the mirror I’m asking her to change her ways And no message could have been any clearer If you want to make the world a better place Take a look at yourself, and then make a change.’ I love these lyrics. (I used to love Jacko too, but that was before he went looking for  him self and happened to find what he was searching for in the underpants of young boys. Allegedly, I should add – don’t sue me, Latoya).  But isn’t now, 2020, the most fucked-up, melon-twisting year of our lives so far, a good time to look in the mirror? Time to take stock of our lives in general? You might not be able to make the world a better place, but you can always work on making  your  world a better place.  Since starting this new blog If You Booze, You Lose, documenting my self-improvement journey to alcohol-free living, I’ve heard gossipy rumblings on the grapevine that I mu...

  It’s 3.33 on a Saturday morning and just like that, I’ve had an idea; a lightbulb moment has roused me from the fitful slumber of a muggy summer’s night and catapulted me into the excited mental state of someone on the cusp of a brand new adventure. After months of nursing a chronic case of inertia I’ve woken alert, with the crystal-clear clarity of someone  whose  new path is finally becoming visible, after years of wandering aimlessly through the hazy maze of life. It’s like someone finally took it upon themselves to chop back the overgrown meadow that is my unkempt existence and reveal the neatly-kept garden hiding beneath the brambles. Having blitzed my home over recent months, my Lockdown Elf has finally decided to work on my Self. The planets are aligning and the Universe is calling me once more. My get-up-and-go got up and went…but change is in the air. I can taste it. So what is this big ‘Aha!’ moment I’ve just had? Have I discovered the cure for  COVID, ...

  Fashion & Beauty ,  Health ,  Lifestyle In Which I Pose In My Bikini For The Sun Imagine my horror when I rocked up at this recent shoot for The Sun and realised I’d be posing in my bikini alongside a group of hotties who were mostly young enough to be my daughters. Gah! They were a nice bunch of girls though and we did have fun posing together…  So, can you spot whose tan is real and whose is fake…? https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/9336288/four-women-strip-fake-tan/ Sam x Fancy reading my back-story before you go any further? You can find my other blogs at: www.costaricachica1.blogspot. com www.samgoessolo.blogspot.com www.mummymission.blogspot.com www.worldwidewalsh.blogspot. com Follow me: Twitter:  @SamanthaWalsh76  (lifeabirdseyeview) Facebook:  @lifeabirdseyeview Instagram:  @lifeabirdseyeview

  When I was younger, much younger – say, 18 years old – I was a tall, slim blonde, excelling at grammar school. The world was my oyster. I breezed through my A-levels, passed with flying colours. I got accepted to several top universities. People told me, at 5ft10 in stockinged feet, I should be a model. So do you know what I did? None of it. I didn’t go to uni. I didn’t become a model. Why? Not because I didn’t have the intelligence, looks, or the ability. I didn’t go because I was lacking that one vital ingredient for success: self-belief. I didn’t think I was worthy. I woke up and told myself I couldn’t do it. I wasn’t good enough. Yesterday, I got signed to a model agency. The first one I applied to, in fact. A second one is now interested in signing me too. I’m not telling you this to show off (although I am a teensy bit proud of myself). I’m telling you this because one of the most important gifts that comes with age, experience, hard times, knock backs and failures is self-...

  Health ,  Lifestyle ,  Otherhood Badass Superstar Back in July this year I was on holiday with my mum at my parents’ villa in Alicante. I awoke before dawn, as is my habit these days, and lay there in my bed, listening to the sounds of the countryside: a dog barking; cicadas buzzing in the trees; a cockerel heralding the new day. In my room, the aircon hummed methodically. I thought about my life: about how I arrived at this place, in this room, at this moment, alone with my thoughts. I pondered how far I’ve come in this past decade: from a place of extreme sadness, fear, helplessness, anger and injustice, to the current feelings of strength, wisdom, contentedness, acceptance and peace. I had been unable to change my fate: the inability to have a child. So, slowly but surely, over time – in stages so tiny and gradual as to be almost imperceptible until I look back at them retrospectively over this lengthy period – I came to terms with my situation. I can finally see all...

  Health ,  Lifestyle I’m Taking Back Control Of My Borders “You look like one of those Hollywood celebs,” my (now ex) boyfriend said pensively as he eyed me getting ready to go out one evening, peering over the top of his phone. “Thanks babe,” I replied, beaming. “….yeah you know, that chunky one whose book you were reading on holiday. Amy…Schumer?” “Oh yeah…right…” I peered in the mirror, deflated, and vowed silently to lose it, once and for all. The man, I mean. That would be 13 stone of excess baggage gone in one fell swoop. To be fair, he had a point: both Amy and I bore more than a passing resemblance to Miss Piggy in those days – and I clearly liked to hang out with a muppet. So I gave him the heave-ho…and vowed to heave my arse to the gym. Separated at birth: I even have a lower back tattoo. Yikes! Faulty relationship dealt with, it was time to continue with my life admin and take stock of my lifestyle. Having stopped smoking at the age of 40, I had been slowly taking ...