What are the opening hours?

Monday 9am - 5:30pm Tuesday 9am - 5:30pm Wednesday 9am - 5:30pm Thursday 9am - 5:30pm Friday 9am - 5pm

Good Sorts Ltd, Chiltern House, 45 Station Road, Henley on Thames (2025)

16/08/2021

Good morning! How are you? No, really – how are you? Are your summer weekends starting to feel vaguely normal? Ours are, just about. We’re slowly getting back to Sundays of leisurely lunches with family and friends, getting out and about and general Sunday stuff although one thing has changed.
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I used to leave planning the week ahead until first thing on Monday morning. Now I scribble in my journal / diary / planner – all in one Moleskine notebook – on Sunday afternoon. And I make a rough draft of Facebook posts too. This was meant to be a fluffy, August-y caption about roses and using ridiculous amounts of Spode Blue Italian china on the breakfast table. Having listened to the news, I changed my mind.
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I tried to imagine what it would be like to be a woman in Kabul this morning. Someone who had started a small enterprise of her own. Or the mother of a daughter at school or a young woman wanting to go to university so that she could become a doctor or a teacher or journalist.
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Of course, the tragedy that is taking place doesn’t only affect women and girls but I’d spent some time over the weekend reading Anya Hindmarch’s book, When in Doubt, Wash your Hair. Somehow the juxtaposition of her insight into being a woman entrepreneur with the unfolding events in Afghanistan makes them even more tragic and horrifying.
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This is usually my August admin week. I’m a like a child facing a plateful of creamed spinach and I have to bribe myself with all sorts of treats to tackle the mind-numbing piles that have been cluttering up my desk for far too long. This year I’m reminding myself what a privilege it is to be here doing them – peacefully, for myself and my own little business. Have a lovely week. More cheerful roses coming on Wednesday, I promise! xxCaroline
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🏷 Organise• a•Lifetime•of•Possessions

30/06/2021

I read somewhere the other day that if you’re struggling to find what you want to do – something you’d enjoy and something you’d be good at – you should think back to what you loved as a child. I’d never thought about it before 🙄 but of course it’s so true.
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I’ve never been happier in my working life than I am now – basically doing all the things I loved as a child! Listening to stories, keeping everything in order, mediating (I’m a middle child!) and being surrounded by objects that mean something.
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So two questions….Is there an element of the things you loved as a child in what you do now? And another one …. When does ‘stuff’ become ‘things’ or when does an object, no matter how mundane, start to mean something?
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I'm fairly certain it happens when there is an unbreakable association with something else. A person, a time, a place – or even making you feel terribly clever because it was the first piece of, say, Russian silver you bought when it was out of fashion and now everyone wants it!
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Giving ‘stuff’ and ‘things’ away is an inevitable part of sorting through a Lifetime of Possessions. Our clients are incredibly generous at donating ‘stuff’ to charities. Sometimes there’s a dilemma about whether something is still useful or not, but not the heart searching that precedes giving away a ‘thing’ you love. It’s not always easy to get it right.
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The theme of the July Newsletter is giving – and receiving – gifts. There’s the story of my husband being nearly murdered over a pair of candlesticks, my favourite London window-shopping walk and a book recommendation that’ll have you reciting poetry as if you were a child again. And chocolate cake! You can subscribe by clicking the website link www.good-sorts.co.uk and waiting for the pop-up or message me with your email address. xxCaroline
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🏷Organise•a•Lifetime•of•Possessions

28/06/2021

Years ago my husband came close to being murdered in the hallway of a New York apartment building. The cause was a pair of beautiful and valuable Russian candlesticks. His would-be murderers weren’t gun-carrying thugs from an organised crime gang. They were his wife and his brother-in-law – with their bare hands.
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I’m being a Monday morning minx. You won’t know the rest of the story until the Newsletter comes out on Friday though my husband obviously survived and my brother and I weren’t banged up on Rikers Island – by a whisker. It’ll be no surprise that one of the most potentially treacherous areas we help our downsizing clients navigate is gifts from their Lifetime of Possessions to family and friends.
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Walking through a minefield, tiptoeing on egg shells – double every metaphor for the fraughtness that lifetime gifts can cause. The other side is that they can be some of the most precious gifts you will ever give or receive.
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The theme of the July Newsletter is giving – and receiving – gifts. I’m putting the finishing touches to a Good Sorts Guide as well. I’ll link it in the Newsletter. As always there’ll be a recipe. This month it’s a fabulously easy but sophisticated cake – I’ve given the recipe to more family and friends than any other. The book recommendation was a present I gave to myself years ago and I still turn to it time and again.
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If you’d like to subscribe to the Newsletter, go to our website www.good-sorts.co.uk . A pop-up will appear in about 10 seconds. Or you can message me your email address and I'll add it for you. Have a lovely week. I can’t believe Wimbledon is starting today. This summer feels almost more weird than last – or is that just me?? xxCaroline
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PS The rose is Desdemona. We’ve planted her for the first time this year. She's an absolutely beauty!
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🏷 • Empathy • Confidence • A Plan •

23/06/2021

Rocks, Pebbles and Sand – perfect if time planning isn’t your thing! I’m great at planning a Good Sort 🏆 - and occasionally blowing my own trumpet 🎺🎺 - but desk-time planning not so much, mostly because I don’t much enjoy sitting at a desk. But I’m a new woman since Rocks, Pebbles and Sand came into my life!
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Whatever period I’m planning – a day, week, month, year – I start off with three headings. Writing Rocks, Pebbles and Sand doesn’t weigh me down before I start, as a solemnly written To Do List did. Sometimes I even draw Rocks with smaller Rocks around them, each with a task written on it. It might sound silly but it makes it fun! We ALL need fun.
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Rocks are the big, important things that are essential for Good Sorts or for me. They usually need to be broken down into a series of smaller tasks or goals and they need creative thought. Pebbles are the things that are still important but only take an hour or two. They’re often routine things – like writing Instagram captions.
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Think of the day or week as a container. Put the Rocks in first. If you put the Pebbles or Sand in first you can’t get the Rocks in. Don’t try to fit in too many. One or two is usually enough for a week. Then start adding Pebbles in the gaps around the Rocks.
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If you’re completely in control of your time – a student revising or you have minions for everything 😉 – you can put in as many Rocks and Pebbles as will fit. If your days are like mine and there’s always something unpredictable – a new client telephoning or a flurry of emails to answer – you can’t fill your time container to the top. You need space for the unexpected.
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I’ve already put the Rocks and Pebbles in the container this week and some are done 😊 🎉 There’ll be more about Sand on Friday. If only it were sand on a 🏖 ! xxCaroline
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🏷Organise•a•Lifetime•of•Possessions

21/06/2021

‘Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that’s the stuff life is made of.’
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‘Suspect each moment, for it is a thief, tiptoeing away with more than it brings.’
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‘If you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds’ worth of distance run..’
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Which is your favourite….Benjamin Franklin, John Updike or Rudyard Kipling?
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I’m slightly hesitant about contributing another word to the millions that have already been written about time planning but here goes. During the winter lockdown I decided I had to have a serious re-think of how I planned my time. Every detail of a Good Sort, including time planning, comes naturally to me. I can just ‘see’ how to do it.
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Planning desk time is another matter because I fidget, get bored, get distracted and I hardly ever have good ideas when I’m looking at a screen. I could feel Franklin, Kipling and Updike looking down on me disapprovingly – and more importantly, at the end of a week with a lot of desk time, I always felt frustrated because I rarely achieved what I wanted to. I tried lots of different time planners, To Do Lists and tweaking my bullet journal but nothing really worked – until I discovered Rocks, Pebbles and Sand.
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Think of the day, week, month – even year – ahead as a container and what you want or need to do as Rocks, Pebbles or Sand. Rocks are the big, important things. Things that are essential for your business or for you as a person. The things that only you can do. They go into the container first. I find one – or at most two – is enough for any given week.
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I’ve got my list of Rocks. I’ll make a final decision over which go into the container labelled W / C 21st June over a cup of coffee! More on Pebbles and Sand later in the week – if we don’t all freeze xxCaroline
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🏷 •Organise•a•Lifetime•of•Possessions•

16/06/2021

Yesterday evening as I drew the curtains I looked out on a mass of roses from every window. The scent wafted gently around me. We have a long narrow town garden. I say ‘we’ but it’s Mr GS who is the real gardener. He’s loved gardening since his grandfather showed him how to plant a nasturtium seed when he was three. The garden is designed around a strong structure – clipped yew, box and pittosporum – and beautiful foliage plants like hostas, melianthus and hydrangea quercifolia but in June there are roses everywhere.
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It’s British Flowers Week so I think I'm allowed roses! Back to the story of Good Sorts. After I’d rushed back from Robert Dyas with ‘a little help is worth a lot of sympathy’ spinning round my head and written LISTEN in capitals as the first step of any Good Sort, I thought about the next steps.
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Feeling overwhelmed. Feeling as if you don’t know where to start. Feeling as if there are a million chaotic decisions to be made. It’s the same for everyone – just as it was for my mother and my family.
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I wrote down words like information, clarity, simplicity, calm, perspective – and phrases like fresh eyes, re-framing the context, curate not purge. And then I wrote ‘How?’ And I had another 💭 💡💡💡 I thought back to my Sotheby’s days. It’s just like choosing between all the different lots in a sale – except you don’t have to pay for them! Which are the ones you love and the ones you need?
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The second step of a Good Sort is turning your lifetime of possessions into a Sotheby’s sale with a dash of Peter Jones thrown in! It changes everything – controllable, clear, efficient and, most surprisingly of all, exciting and fun.
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It sounds as if the weather will break later so one of the non-negotiables on my To Do list is picking an enormous bunch of roses! Have a lovely day xxCaroline
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🏷Organise•a•Lifetime•of•Possessions

14/06/2021

The heroine looks up pensively from her notebook into the middle distance. The scene blurs and a new scene comes into focus…..LONDON, 12 YEARS EARLIER. Three people are locking the door on an empty house – an elderly woman and a younger couple. Looking white and wide-eyed with stress and exhaustion they climb wearily into a car as overloaded as a 19th century tinker’s cart.
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Fast forward five years and the scene moves to Robert Dyas – I know… super-glam. The younger woman is standing in the checkout queue behind another elderly woman who says to the salesgirl, ‘Well, yes, dear….but a little help is worth a lot of sympathy.’
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It’s not exactly ‘Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again….’ but the first scene happened as my mother left the house where she’d spent 35 happy, busy years. The second scene is a snippet I overheard as I was first thinking seriously about Good Sorts. I immediately went home and started writing down ideas.
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You need a detailed understanding of the people and the context. You have to empathise with the emotions they’re going through. You have to be a confidante, counsellor, sounding board and, yes, occasionally a mediator. I wrote down the first step of a Good Sort. In capitals. LISTENING.
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If you can't wait for the next instalment 😉 click on the website link in our profile. Scroll down the Home Page and there’s a video of real life me talking about Good Sorts.
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It's a week of rosy photos. The lovely, floppy one is The Generous Gardener and the elegantly neat one is Queen of Sweden. If you're looking for rosy inspiration you *must* get a copy of Victoria Martin's Favourite Roses for Cutting from Stokesay Flowers.
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It sounds as if the news won’t be great today so here are some virtual roses for everyone 💐 xxCaroline
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🏷 • Empathy • Confidence • A Plan •

02/06/2021

Has anyone got some cold milk and a packet of butterscotch flavour Instant Whip? I can taste it now and hear the sound of an old Prestige rotary whisk. This is the second of the ‘things I remember in my grandmother’s hands’ posts – except I can remember using one of these!
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A couple of people asked me yesterday how I choose the things that I photograph – an old egg slicer wouldn’t be everyone’s choice and it’s sometimes quite a surprise to our clients! It’s easiest to explain by starting with what I don’t photograph.
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I don’t photograph anything that would compromise our clients’ confidentiality or security which rules out very valuable or personal things. I also don’t take interior or exterior shots for the same reasons – and because my photographic skills aren’t up to it. There are occasional exceptions, but only if it’s impossible to identify where we are.
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A lot of what we do isn’t very photogenic in a social media way. It’s not like professional organisers who transform messy cupboards into immaculate order for perfect before and after photos. We’re helping clients sort through a lifetime of accumulated possessions making hundreds of decisions. I could post lots of photos of neatly labelled cardboard boxes but we’d probably all get bored.
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That leaves the amusing, the unusual, the quirky, the things that trigger memories – for you, for us and, of course, our clients. The Good Sorts vibe we create is one of being helped by empathetic, caring, positive friends who know exactly what they’re doing. The conversations and reminiscing that happen whilst we’re all working away are an important part of that.
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If you’d like a relaxing read about flowers for the table, the best roses for picking and much more here's a link to the June Newsletter https://mailchi.mp/05f136c8f662/fairylike-and-yet-dignified Perfect with an ice cream🍦🌞 xxCaroline
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🏷 Organise•a•Lifetime•of•Possessions

01/06/2021

Isn’t it wonderful that the first day of summer actually feels like summer … Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day, I got a wonderful feeling everything’s goin’ my way!
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Well, I don’t feel quite like that but I feel so much better for the weather having properly turned and that there were friends around our table yesterday for the first time since last summer.
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We kept it simple and they came for tea – cucumber sandwiches, egg and cress sandwiches and an old-fashioned coffee and walnut cake, Earl Grey and a large G & T before everyone went home. If you haven’t tried the pink Fever Tree Aromatic Tonic Water and added a good squeeze of lime, instead of lemon, you must! It’s so delicious and refreshing.
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I'm trying to keep everything simple this week ….when I plan my social media for the week I write down a visual theme, or red thread, that runs through all the photos. It's much easier to see on Instagram than it is on Facebook but never mind!
This week there is literally a red thread but this is what I wrote down as the visual theme ‘Things you remember in your grandmother’s hands’. It’s a week of battered, old-fashioned kitchen utensils.
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Who doesn’t remember an egg slicer like this? Well, those of us who are old enough anyway 😉 The slightly waxy feeling plastic, off white turning to yellow and the twanging wires. In years to come will those snazzy Joseph Joseph ones be turned over and over in a young person’s hands in the same way as childhood memories come flooding back? I hope so because those memories are very special.
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Have a lovely week – full of sandwiches, cake and everything goin’ your way! xxCaroline
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🏷Organise•a•Lifetime•of•Possessions

12/05/2021

More tulip spam to go with my blatherings on 'Empathy, Confidence and a Plan'. When I came across the phrase in a political commentator’s Twitter it resonated like the hammer hitting Big Ben. No exaggeration - well, not much. I know what it feels like because I once stood next to Big Ben - right next to it at the top of the tower – at the moment it strikes. It was an off-the-clock amazing experience (awful pun🙄) - once I’d got my breath back from climbing the stairs.
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Back to empathy, confidence and a plan. These tulips couldn’t be anything other than ‘confidence’, could they?
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Have you ever thought how much long-term damage lack of confidence does? Over-confidence may lead to short-term disasters but lack of confidence stops you trying things, doing things, facing up to things – and most of all, it’s stops you enjoying life. It’s a little beast. Believe me, I know that from personal experience too.
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There are endless self-help guides to gaining confidence but it isn’t complicated. You do have to make yourself try things that don’t come easily, you do have to start with ‘baby steps’, find things you love and sometimes you have to make a superhuman effort to haul yourself up by your own bootstraps. There aren’t short cuts but one day you’ll just wake up knowing you’re a different person.
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And here’s a quick fix for situations where you’re quaking in your shoes – it happens to everyone! Walking into a room full of strangers still tops my list. Make yourself laugh. My go-to confidence booster is channeling mouse-y Joan Fontaine saying ‘I am Mrs de Winter now’ to creepy Mrs Danvers in Hitchcock’s Rebecca.
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I hope you have at least one terrific laugh today and that you help someone else to laugh. It’ll do wonders for your confidence and theirs! xxCaroline

🏷Organise•a•Lifetime•of•Possessions

10/05/2021

Tulip spam this week….not quite spam, but you’ll have to read through a few contortions to get to ‘relevance’! Last week I went a whole day without hearing or seeing the news. That last happened at least five years ago. It made me wonder what political journalists feel like – relieved, exhausted, creative – now that people like me aren’t hanging on their every tweet!
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Before my grip on the twitterati loosened, I wrote down verbatim something I read on James Fallows’ feed. He’s an American journalist and writer. He wrote in the context of one of President Biden’s first big speeches ‘….as people in the speech writing biz know, the basic structure of any effective speech-in-time-of-trouble is: 1) empathy 2) confidence 3) a plan.’
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Empathy, confidence and a plan. It resonated so strongly with me that I’ve made it one of Good Sorts’ hashtags on Instagram. You don’t have to be making a speech watched by millions of people – you can have an audience of one – but if they’re looking to you for support and guidance in their individual time of trouble, those are things they’re looking for. It doesn’t matter if you’re a politician or Good Sorts.
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There’s a lot of talk about Emotional Intelligence – including empathy – as if it’s a gift that’s bestowed at birth. Yes, some of us are better at it than others but did you know that it’s also a skill that you can learn? The root of empathy is kindness – do something kind for someone and watch how they react. The more kind things you do, the more you understand empathy and the more you boost your own confidence. Proven neuro-science! Win-win, no?
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It's Mental Health Awareness Week. All of us have felt wilted – I told you it was contortions to get to the tulips – at some point over the past year. Our mental health needs more nurture than ever. Have a kind week – starting with yourself! xxCaroline
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🏷Organise•a•Lifetime•of•Possessions

30/04/2021

Me: I’ve decided the theme for the May Newsletter will be decisions.
My husband looking very serious: Are you sure?
Me: 😳😳
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Even after all these years he gets me every time. He’s always been brilliant at one-liners whereas I’m hopeless. And I still feel uncomfortable when I think of the rare occasions when I’ve produced what for me are absolute zingers. It’s ridiculous.
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We were staying with friends in the South of France. One morning we decided to venture into Cannes with one of the other houseguests. She was such fun – flamboyant, impetuous and very clever. We found a lovely shop where I tried on a linen suit. It was so pretty – sea blue, sailor type jacket and velvet hemmed culottes. And then my eye was caught by an elegant knitted coat. Both fitted me perfectly and were quite expensive.
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Cue pressure from the vendeuse – subtle – and from the friend – not subtle. And me in the middle wondering which one to have. Then I left the shop without either. The friend said very crossly ‘Don’t you EVER do anything on the spur of the moment?’ I replied not quite as crossly ‘Yes – when I’ve had a day or two to think about it.’
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The following day I quietly went back to the shop and bought both. But I really, really don’t like being put under *external* pressure to make quick decisions about big things. It’s so important to recognize when you’re being put under pressure and where it’s coming from when you’re making a decision. Make it your decision, not anyone else’s!
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Thank you SO much to everyone who’s subscribed to the Newsletter. I hope you enjoy it. If it hasn’t arrived by 1 pm BST (always precise!) do check your junk mail. Hope you have a fab Bank Holiday Weekend. xxCaroline
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🏷 Organise•a•Lifetime•of•Possessions

28/04/2021

72 hours of nothing but iced water before making a big decision – er, probably not necessary or advisable, unless it induces a Zen-like state of calm. Ditto, a bottle of wine....it’s the calm that’s important, however you get there. A mug of builder’s tea works a treat for me!
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The limbic system is the part of the brain where we process emotions. It's very active when we're making decisions – and conversely anyone who has suffered limbic system damage can be crippled by indecision. You probably know instinctively how important it is to recognise and be in control of your emotions before, during and after big decisions – the neuroscience backs you up.
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Deciding to have an extra chocolate biscuit because you’re fed up with another day of lockdown 🙋🏼‍? Doesn’t matter. Resigning from a job you love because you’re *furious* with a colleague who isn’t important to your long-term career 🙋🏼‍? That matters. I was very young but it was still stupid and destructive. I learned the hard way not to do big things when I'm not in control of my emotions.
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If you’ve got a day of big decisions ahead your note to self is ‘Calm down, dear!’
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The theme of the May Newsletter - out on Friday - is decisions. If you sign up via the link in our profile you’ll know as soon as the Guide to Good Decision Making is on the website. Some of the Guide may not surprise you, but some of it might!
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You’ll also find ideas for some special wedding presents. What bigger decision is there than getting married and how often have you agonized over what to give the happy couple? There’s a recipe for a delicious salad to keep that limbic system ticking over nicely and recommendations for two books to give to young friends who are just starting out on their working lives. They’ll love you for them.
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Have a decisively calm day or a calmly decisive day! xxCaroline

26/04/2021

How many decisions have you already made this morning? Did you whistle through all of them without having to stop and think? Have you got a big one looming today … if you have, I hope it didn’t keep you awake last night. It’s horrible starting the day feeling like a zombie… especially if you still haven’t made up your mind.
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Everyone Good Sorts helps is faced with dozens, sometimes hundreds, of decisions. They range from the trivial to the seriously consequential – from which cutlery to keep to whether to sell a beautiful Old Master painting that’s been in the family for six generations.
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Not surprisingly, we know a LOT about the process you need to go through to arrive at good decisions and how to make it easier. However trivial or consequential the decision you’re making, the best place to start is Why (you’re making the decision) and What (you want the *positive* result to be).
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‘I’ve only got space for one set of cutlery in my new dresser. I’ll just have beautifully designed cutlery that goes in the dishwasher.’ ‘None of my children has room for the painting or can afford the insurance. I can give each of them the same, fair share of the proceeds. They can buy or do something they love with it.’
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So why are you putting on those socks and what do you want the result to be.....? I’m kidding – up to a point – because you’ve subconsciously worked through those. Why and What work for everything.
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I’ve written a Good Sorts Guide to making good decisions. Now here’s a decision for you. Do you subscribe to the Newsletter so you know as soon as it’s on the website or do you hope that I’ll give you a link when it’s up 😉? If you want to subscribe, click on the website link in our profile and wait for the pop-up.
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Have a good week – I’m heading to a meeting in London I’ve been looking forward to for ages - once I've decided what to wear!! xxCaroline

29/03/2021

If you subscribe to the Newsletter and it didn't drop into your Inbox last night, do check your spam folder. xxCaroline

26/03/2021

‘When you say you haven’t got time for something, what you really mean is you don’t want it enough to make time.’ It’s a tricky one, that one. It would probably ring rather hollow with someone who has been trying to juggle home-schooling and working from home over the last few months without losing their sanity.
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I have two role models in making time for what you want to do. One is my cousin’s wife. As a working mother of three small children she knew that reading was an essential in her life which she couldn’t give up so each morning she slipped quietly out of bed at 5am to read for an hour while everyone else was still asleep.
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My other role model is Dame Barbara Hepworth. In 1934 she gave birth to triplets. As a young artist still climbing towards the peak of her career she said she ‘knew fear’ for the first time. How would she support her family? In later life she said "A woman artist is not deprived by cooking and having children, nor by nursing children with measles (even in triplicate) – one is in fact nourished by this rich life, provided one always does some work each day; even a single half hour, so that the images grow in one's mind."
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Laura Freeman writes about Barbara Hepworth's Pictorial Autobiography in the Spring issue of Slightly Foxed ‘Over and over’, she writes ‘I have the same debate: books or babies or both?’ Of all the advice she has been given, it’s Barbara Hepworth’s words that have inspired, spurred on and reassured the most and are carved on her heart. ‘Even a single half hour.’
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There’s more about why I love Slightly Foxed in the moth-y, mossy and minty Newsletter going out on Sunday. Subscribe by clicking on the link in our profile and waiting for the pop-up.
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Have a lovely weekend whether you’re slipping out of bed at 5am or finding that ‘single half hour’. xxCaroline

24/03/2021

I’m about to blow my cover. I’m not always calm, positive, empathetic….I can do me, me, me with the best of them. Instead of beaming with gratitude that the worst impact of Coronavirus has slipped by us in the last year, I woke up feeling, not so much spoilt and foot-stamping, but wish-full.
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I wish I could stay in bed and finish reading Shuggie Bain – totally immersive, tragic and uplifting – instead of leaping out of bed because the Thames Water engineer might be here at 8, but then again it might be 12. I wish I was going to the hairdresser not looking at what my grandmother used to call a ‘birch broom in a fit’ in the mirror.
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I wish I could eat a thickly buttered slice of toast and marmalade for breakfast instead of contemplating the Christmas kilo which normally disappears quietly by the middle of January instead of forming a neat little roll around my waist. I wish we were taking the dogs for a walk on Sennen beach this morning, watching the Atlantic waves rolling in not looking at Chiltern hedgerows, no matter how pretty they are. I wish we were having supper with the friends we’re Zooming with this evening…
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Ho-hum. That does sound VERY spoilt. Before I started writing this morning I looked back at what I’d written a year ago. The tone was very different. Worried – yes, but having no concept that this is where we’d be a year later. When I look at our dogs, I sometimes wonder what it’s like to have no idea of the future until it's triggered by habit and the senses. Perhaps it doesn’t hurt to be a little more like them.
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I hope you have a good day not worrying about the future. A ground-shaking foot stamp about the present and doing something you believe in might help. I believe in ....soup. Bright green spring-flavoured soup. The recipe will be in the Newsletter this weekend. If you’d like to subscribe, click on the link in our profile and wait for the pop-up. xxCaroline

22/03/2021

The first day of Spring, more than 800,000 vaccines each day, the Census – that’s a lot for one weekend. And if there are any Welsh Rugby fans reading …. I’m very sorry. It must have been SO disappointing…..
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I was ready for some good television yesterday evening. I’ve never watched Line of Duty but I’d seen a few of you saying how much you were looking forward to the new series and, of course, there’s the Mercurio factor. I loved it – once I’d got used to the jargon and acronyms. But there was one word they kept using which had me puzzled…What on earth is a Chizz?
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The context didn’t make it sound like another incarnation of the Cheese Football. I was very grateful to the continuity announcer at the end who explained that a C.H.I.S. is a Covert Human Intelligence Source. The poor C.H.I.S didn’t make it past the end of the first episode.
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Happily we may not all be a C.H.I.S but we’re all a H.I.S. As I was listening to Professor Sarah Gilbert who led the research for the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine this morning, I thought she’s an off-the-scale H.I.S but each one of us will be an important Human Intelligence Source for someone this week.
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What has this got to do with my silk-lined bo***ir and a little pile of sweaters? I’m kidding about the bo***ir but the sweaters are real…and favourites. Of all the expertise we use to help our clients, I think they fall on the advice about avoiding moth damage with as much gratitude as anything else – that’s why the first section in the Newsletter which is going out on Sunday is about keeping your clothes safe from moths – you can sign up by clicking the link in our profile and waiting for the pop-up! Good Sorts puff over….
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We may not all be Sarah Gilbert, but we're all experts in something and we all make a difference. I hope you have a happy week making lots of time to pat yourself on the back for what you’re good at. xxCaroline

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