I love writing and telling stories.  By that I mean telling stories which really have happened, not fibs or “fairy stories” as my Nana Chapman used to call them.

I’ve been badgered a lot about starting a blog, and at first I was worried that it would be a bit too much like a diary and really embarrassing.  It seemed odd that someone called Tim in New Zealand could be reading about me, my exploits or thoughts at two ‘o’ clock in the morning after a night out.  Hello Tim.  But I figured I should get over myself and ultimately as long as I’m not writing about every little thing I get up to, it’ll be ok.  Sorry Tim.

The name of my blog comes from whenever I introduce myself to people.  To my friends I’m Row, short for Rowena, but for some reason people keep thinking I’m called Raw.  I believe it stems from my accent and when I say “Row.”  To me, it definitely sounds as though I’m referring to an action when on a boat, but it would seem to them I’m referring to vegetables.  Or meat.  I completely understand with all the far-fetched names people bestow on their children nowadays that there’s every likelihood there may be a child called Raw out there, but let’s face it, my Mum and Dad are northerners who discovered my name in an issue of Woman’s Weekly.  I may have been born in the seventies, but far out hadn’t quite reached the Lake District by the spring of ’77.  It’s become something of a long-standing joke between my friend Carrie and I.  Here’s a hint, Carrie isn’t her name either.

So here it is, or at least the start of it.  Some stuff really has happened, other posts may be an amalgamation of stories, a few will stem completely from my imagination, and there’ll be some musings in there too.  I worked at innocent (of smoothie fame) as a People’s Champion for almost a decade and all those hours spent on the bananaphone and answering e-mails have provided lots of material for some great stories.  I’ll let you know what’s true and what isn’t, all in the spirit of good manners as my Nana taught me.  (You’ll be hearing a lot about her on these pages.)

I hope you enjoy reading my posts as much as I enjoy writing them.