Erica Crompton ‘How I bought a house’
How I bought a house with an income under £16k By Erica Crompton The sunset glows red. I’m sat on the end of my double bed. With a glass of Chianti, I look out over the lilac tree outside and across the bowling green and feel a tremendous sense of achievement as I take it […]
Happy New Year?
Emily Blain, Fintel’s HR Director, speaks of speaking up if you’re struggling I’m sure that, just like me, by the second week of January you’re sick to the back teeth of saying, and hearing, ‘Happy New Year’ in every single interaction! In addition to getting tedious quickly, the traditional new greeting is also not entirely […]
Identity, disclosure and mental illness
Tweetster @Joe0Tuesday writes about telling people about your mental illness “Hi, my name is Joe and I have schizophrenia!” Is that how you’d expect to start a conversation with someone you don’t know? Would it shock you? Whether you are from within the mental health community or not it is quite a lot to comprehend […]
With love from Ireland
Experiencing difficulty can positively impact you, says writer Caoimhe Clements It was January 2021; the weather was cold and unkind identical to my emotions. I was a university student, in my final year studying Photography with Video. With the pandemic creating a public health scare, the degree teaching of my final year took place completely […]
The theatre’s magic
An imagination is sparked with the arts, a poem by Rachel Melinek My sister imagination sparked as a child. As we get up to leave a magic show, she asks the magician on stage whether he dwelt in a cave. I was spellbound as a child by performance, I sometimes refused to move and asked […]
Gin Palace
Erica & Paul experience DIY tipples overlooking the River Tweed It was back to school last month, with a seriously magical twist – Paul and I were visiting a wheelchair-friendly gin school where we learned to make out own gin, and try it, too! The school itself is set within the Hydro Hotel, in Peebles […]
A special place
Erica Crompton discovers peace & calm at Kailzie gardens “People that visit us here in Kailzie gardens all say it’s such a special place,” says Steve, our accessibility guide for the afternoon tour of the gardens. There’s a dedicated off-road wheelchair here that Paul uses, and Steve pushes today as we cast our eyes over […]
Positively Peebles
The Cringletie is the Scottish hotel that wins on accessibility, says Hopezine Editor Erica Crompton As a white snow blankets the rolling hills that frame the River Tweed, we take a left from the scenic Edinburgh Road and over a private bridge to discover the Cringletie, a secluded baronial mansion. Snowflakes blanket the driveway as […]
Bittersweet.
A poem about relocating to Scotland from Spain By Laura Menéndez In the busy morning of a train I have found silence -I was missing- The quiet was daunting, almost oppresing. A monotonous fog had taken over. I had nowhere left to go. In the silence and the quiet, the stillness of one room, in […]
An ode to Scotland
Scotland is the place that will always feel like home, says Laura Menéndez I vividly remember the day I stepped on a plane to change my life forever. After a year of university in Spain, I knew it wasn’t for me. I accepted an offer to study in Scotland. And off I went. A big […]