Bide Laundryand Cleaning Products

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Meet The Founder

Amelia Gammon had already been on a personal mission to adopt a greener lifestyle for more than a decade before launching bide in March 2020. 

Having made the switch to using many eco alternatives to household essentials herself, she knew that these types of products needed to become more accessible and affordable before they could become mainstream. 

Amelia originally began curating boxes of existing green cleaning products. But a little research showed many of the brands behind them were not as ethical as they might appear from the labels. 

So, bide began producing their own products, which Amelia saw as an opportunity to help empower people who often face barriers to work. 

Famous Last Words Billy 1959-2022

 

Billy said this to me as I left the living room to make the bed and sorted the laundry He didn't get to have the prawn salad

Interview with Penny Hawkins (hospice nurse)

 I was with Billy as he was dying. It is comforting to know that I was there for him through palliative and end-of-life care.

Billy asked me not to go to his funeral as I would be expected to be sociable with people who didn't spend time with him when he was alive.

The link to the interview is HERE

My Best Friend Just Died

My bestie that died on the 25th November this year. We had shared a home for 9 years. Back in 2013, after a couple of years of chatting on Facebook, as friends, he messaged me to tell me he was in Brighton Hospital, recovering from a leg amputation. We became 'an item' within a month or so and we were totally in love. We moved in together when he left hospital and all was going wonderfully well until 2016.

In March 2016, I collapsed at home with multiple organ failure as a complication of a bog standard cold virus. In hospital, I went into cardiac arrest and then spent several days in an induced coma.

When Billy came to visit I had no idea that we had been in a relationship so assumed this was my friend that was visiting. So when I got back home after 3 weeks in hospital, neither of us really new how to be with each other.

We decided then to scrub round all the soppy stuff and stay together as besties, sharing a place. Right up until he died, we remained best friends and we were each others caregivers, since we both had support needs. We found things to make us laugh every day and he was the best friend I have ever had.

Now, I have thousands of Facebook friends and have met very few of them, so when I announced that Billy I had died, you can guess there were many who told me he watches over me and knows what I am doing.

I really feel like replying "He was my best friend, not Santa Claus' but I generally thank people for their kinds thoughts instead xxx

 

New Book Cover For My Current Memoir

 

I'm still playing about with the book cover design and have started on lots of sections of the book.

As part of my research, I am reading lots of memoirs to see how other people organise their work. I recently read the book above and found it extremely helpful, helpful, so I plan to work my way through it a few times during this writing project.

Femme Forte : We Are As Strong As We Think We Are (Harris & Knight Book 1)

Femme Forte: We Are As Strong As We Think We Are by Ruth Stevens
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow! Wonderful descriptions, a roller coaster of emotions, and a jaw-dropping cliffhanger leading me onto the next book in this series.

I'm glad my husband wasn't able to see my screen while I was reading some of the more raunchy bits or it might have given him ideas lol.

I usually read memoirs and classic fiction, so I was surprised I enjoyed this story as much as I did. This is entirely down to the creativity and writing skills of the author.

Well worth a read

View all my reviews

Memories of 2016

 I'd been feeling really unwell with cold-like symptoms and overwhelming fatigue since the summer of 2015. Then in early march 2016, I collapsed at home and Billy called an ambulance.

I was left in a corridor in the hospital for well over 12 hours, then finally got a place in their assessment room. While the medical staff were waiting for test results I went into cardiac arrest and had 3 lots of CPR carried out by a dishy medical registrar (he met me later on).

I then spent several days in an induced coma in ICU and spent 3 weeks in hospital altogether.

Nobody explained why I was so ill, but when I got bored one night on the ward, I read my hospital notes which said I had arrived at the hospital with multiple organ failure.

After I came home from the hospital I had to build a new lot of memories as I didn't know what kind of person I was, nor what kind of relationships I had with family members.

I recognised my husband and stepdaughter when they visited me in the hospital but didn't know how well I knew them. I had to get to know them as new people in my life.

My adult son came to stay with us for a few days after I came home and when I opened the door to him, I didn't know who he was. It's been 6 years since my cardiac arrest and we still have times in conversations where he needs to remind me of some things we used to share memories of.