Can’t believe how quickly this time has come around. How am I writing another review of the year? And as I always say, “what a year it’s been.“
Achieved lots this year and had some smashing family times, enjoyed a bit of a discovery journey, personally speaking, this year too: working out where I want to spend my energies long-term etc. And happy that almost every area of my life is actually hunky-dory. Especially when things go on in other peoples’ lives and it makes you feel grateful that your own woes are so comparatively small.
The rest of the review is below. And a quick word about Christmas. It was smashing as usual. Family time with Brad and his kids just before Christmas. Then Lolly came down over Christmas this year and spent three days with me. Big get-togethers with family for meals and things including a boxing day curry trip, (general consensus we won’t do that again, the food was too hot! No surprise Sherlock LOL). Lots of laughs, love, hugs, And frantically dashing from one place to the next! And I did boxing day on QVC as well and am due to see in the New Year this year between 11 pm and 1 am on the 31st!
Well, that’s another Christmas over, so what about looking back to the whole of 2023?
So here it is, my annual look back at the last 12 months…
Favourite Moment of the Year
Has to be family based doesn’t it! It was the week that my family came together for the first time for a week in my place in Devon. Lauren & family were there for the whole week, Bradley & kids came for a long weekend, and mum even came too. First time my place has been used completely, and very glad I was, that it is so big! We went on lots of outings, including this one to War Horse farm, plus the beach, the theme park, where the two little boys walked along holding hands: some of my favourite photos of the year. Including where the two little girls were walking along holding firewood on the day it was raining and we went for a long, long ramble. Mostly it was boiling hot though! Great memories and great times. Hopefully more next year!
Plus of course it’s been another great year running my business in my guesthouse down in Devon, Retreats For You has had an unprecedented year of almost sold out bookings for the vast majority of the monthly retreats I have run, and we’ve had a few holidays as well. I’ve had some great times with friends down there, thank you to all my beautiful and wonderful Devon friends for making another year there so special.
And of course it wasn’t only about the Devon holidays, had a lovely time in France, twice! Went back to Amchara for another yoga retreat in Somerset, went to Center Parcs with the tall trees, loved it, and when it was really hot, enjoyed it in the kids’ pool at my daughters as well :-). Have done a lot of swimming this year, need to do a bit more and more walking next year though. Need to shift that extra stone! Due to go on the cruise with mum and sister, will it be this summer? Hopefully!
Have loved spending time with family, especially for mum‘s 80th and sister’s 60th, their birthday bashes have been superb. Had a lovely weekend up London with all of the siblings and co: Theatre, Hotel, dinners, lovely. Then a surprise birthday get-together for my sis at her daughter’s house, including Glen who was over from Sweden! Nice family times.
I’m especially proud of my sister who at 59, began her 1st degree in counselling. She’s been doing it for years whilst talking to clients (including me!) during their manicures and pedicures, and now she makes it official. And she’s proven how intelligent she is. I’m learning things from her all the time and I couldn’t be more proud.
I’ve also had a year of sorting things out, including via being a director at our flats, (of course I am!), like working out why the balconies are leaking, and trying to help save money for people by rethinking how contractors are used, thereby keeping their service charge lower than it would’ve been had I not got involved. Lots of satisfying problem solving, and driving hard to take everything on our estate to a more suitable position (which will in turn mean I have less to do in the future – so there’s a method in my madness!)
Plus holding various official positions for my associations in Devon and arranging events in London, gosh it’s been a busy year! Goodness knows what will happen next year but I just love arranging events and will continue to do so, if I can fit it all in! There may be a Medical Detection Dogs one, we will see. I arranged an event at the start of this year and one of the prizes was to come to see the doggies and have lunch at the HQ in Milton Keynes and Patrick Hoy came too. It was lovely, and as ever, very rewarding – being an ambassador for this very special charity.
Flint Family Reunion
The last of Dad‘s six siblings, auntie Eileen met up with mum, auntie Angela, and some of my cousins in October, for a lovely get-together, long overdue. So nice to meet up with family, spend time laughing and reminiscing. Hopefully will get to do some more in 2024.
Top pic of the Year – Christmas Bash December 2023
Obviously tons of highlights this year involved my children and their children. Skating at Somerset house early December, was one of the best memories, when Lauren came down with her family to stay at Brad’s for our own family early Christmas get-together, and that weekend we took this photo. It’s now pride of place on the wall in my lounge on a massive canvas! Just such a lovely action shot and everyone so smiley, very happy with it, well done Kari or Nick for taking it! I’ve got a succession of such pictures as the family group has grown, from one little Blake, to 2 little girls, to the girls and a bump and a baby boy, to the 4 of them, including two little boys now walking and starting to talk… I wonder what next year’s best shot will be!
Highlights
Here’s a cross-section of the other QVC based highlights of my year…
QVC’s 30th Anni, Debbie Flint designs, and dressing up for a shoot!
Well, so many celebrations in our 30th anniversary year, they included several of us designing our own fashion outfits, mine were the tops in a set of two that more or less sold out and are what I wear frequently! Sitting wearing one of them now actually! Also had the most amazing photoshoot, which was excruciating in terms of being outside my comfort zone, but produced some of the best pictures I’ve ever been in I think (well, they took tons so there had to be a few that passed muster. Plus of course my Debbie Flint bee jewellery designs in Diamonique; another great year being part of the QVC family and getting experiences I wouldn’t get almost anywhere else 🙂
Top Show
Always lots of favourites with my regular chums of course, but I must say I’ve particularly enjoyed presenting ‘menopause your way’, this year, pushing for the chat show format with the sofa so we can get everybody to give their own experiences and share our journeys. Have loved the camaraderie and supportiveness of these shows. Thanks to the team behind them making it happen. Particular thanks also, to a producer called Andrew Collins, who I know of old (we went out for a meal together in October to celebrate 40 years since we went to broadcasting school together!). He has also been a highlight this year such a supportive, focused producer he deserves a mention in this year’s review of the year!)
Top New Product
Hard one this year, and I’ll probably think of something else as soon as I have submitted this! And I’m still of course using all of my previous favourites – lip lift, Gatineau neck gel, Shark hand vac et cetera et cetera. In fact they’ve asked us to submit 15 of our top products, well, I could’ve written 30! (Look out for the newly revamped presenter section on our website to find out what made the cut). But thinking about what has made my life easier this year, what I’ve used the most, and what has made me most grateful to own it, & it has to be the ninja zero stick roasting tins and bakeware for the oven. Mainly because there’s nothing else quite like it. So slippery, so easy to clean, so time saving, especially when I’m cooking for 5 to 10 people down in Devon on my writing retreats. (See retreatsforyou.co.uk). The zero stick pans and the possible pot are also right up there, as is the knife set, and the foodie max health grill which I use a lot in Devon. Coincidentally then, Ninja/shark, sister companies, win for the second year running! So there you go, not necessarily the most glamorous of items, (and I could have chosen some wonderful beauty products, for instance the new micro serum from Elemis or the new acid peel from Gatineau and more). But definitely one of the most valued… I wonder what next year’s will be!
Dressing like Bridgerton
Loved doing this with QVC pals for Lorna Ko 50th birthday in May! I’m not usually one for parties and dressing up but it was well worth doing it for Lorna and we had a great time, Patrick was a blast in his Dame outfit as well!
Ali Keenan highlights
My lovely friend and colleague retired in the summer, and there was a smashing leaving do for her and a manager called Kealan. Ali got her goodbye on Air, too, and a lovely sendoff afterwards. Have stayed in touch and followed her blogs and been out to lunches and also to the theatre and intend to do so throughout 2024 as well – make sure you follow her on her socials!
Book of the Year
Or should I say, books. There have been so many this year. Mainly a couple of standout series, it’s been quite hard to pick a single book out of all of them!
– The Mangle Street Murders series by MRC Kasasian, was really stand out, set in the late 1800s, featuring Curious Anti-Hero private detective (‘personal’ detective according to him!), Sidney Grice and his sidekick March Middleton. Some wonderfully funny characters and turns of phrase, brilliantly original writing, scene setting, and period details. I could read those books all day long. Whizzed through the series of 5 books, and read the spinoff set in the 2nd World War years.
– The Ruth Galloway books by Elly Griffiths. Featuring a forensic archaeologist, no wonder I was hooked, due to my love of all things ancient. This is a long series of books following not only Ruth but also her relationship with a testy detective, with tons of archaeological fines and drama and compelling characters thrown in, set in current day Norfolk. Loved it.
– Or maybe the books I got into later in the year, featuring various Barrister heroes in various guises. Simon Michael’s ‘Charles Holborne legal thrillers’, set in the early 60s in East End gangland London were delightful. Several contemporary ones. And possibly equally the best – the Benson and De Vere series by John Fairfax – so detailed and educative: a convicted murderer turned barrister, William Benson, fighting to clear his name, alongside his sidekick De Vere, by John Fairfax – some of the best procedurals and courtroom scenes. All highly recommended. Plus of course the new releases by my favourite authors, Lee Child, Robert Galbraith, Jeffrey Archer, Julie Cohen and Ken Follett and more. Although I have to say the new John Grisham follow up to ‘The Firm’ was a bit weak.
But possibly marginally more standout than most, was None of This is True, by Lisa Jewell. My first from her and won’t be the last: it was so compelling I frequently couldn’t wait to get back to it, the sign of a good book, for me. Covering the topic of narcissistic behaviour and seeing through the facade you are first presented with, it certainly made me think. So, taking all things into account, if I had to choose just one book this year, it would probably be this one! By the way ‘Lessons in Chemistry’, last year‘s book of the year, is also now a series on Apple TV – another one that I have to watch!
Non-Fiction of the year
Have also unusually enjoyed a couple of non-fiction this year. ‘Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing,’ narrated by Matthew Perry himself, was incredibly poignant. And so, so sad. Plus ‘The Plot,’ by Nadine Dorries – so much subterfuge it puts House of Cards to shame and is bound to be made into a TV show at some point!
Sticking with books, another highlight this year was from Feb – meeting and interviewing Lord Jeffrey Archer, master storyteller, whose success every author would like to emulate I’m sure! And massive congratulations to several of my writing colleagues who are doing so well, not only those I meet down in my retreat in Devon, but also the ones from Chez Castillon, the place I spent most of my holidays, in France, and writing friends of old – have loved some of the get-togethers with Litty, Carolyn and Maureen as well as Alix down in Devon. Not to mention those pals at QVC who are authors, you’ve all done very well!
In fact Carolyn has a very special offer on Amazon right now for those who wish to read her detective series. ‘Cry from the Grave’ is available at a vastly reduced price or free. So click this link to find out more! She’s so prolific and I’m so, so proud of my writing friend.
‘Watch’ of the Year
TV – ‘Nolly’. So much this year that was amazing, including new seasons of so many of my favourites – Outlander, The Crown, The Newsroom, Hacks, Ginny and Georgia, Firefly Lane, Dead to Me, Ozark, Succession, Upload, Reacher season 2, Marvellous Mrs Maisel, many of which I won’t get round to watching! Have spent most of my spare time this year problem solving and writing blogs and newsletters and updates and posts and minutes of meetings and reports and goodness knows what else. But there’s an end in sight to much of that, in 2024, don’t worry!
Nonetheless Nolly stood out, with a superb performance from Helena Bonham Carter, as Meg Mortimer from Crossroads, a.k.a. Noel Gordon. It’s been on again over Christmas, superb period piece, excellent recreations of the actors who used to be in Crossroads, as they chart the dramatic fall from grace, of one of our most A-list of A-listers, back in the day. How incredible she could have been if she had not fallen ill just as her theatre triumphs were turning everything around, after she was let go from what was one of our biggest TV shows ever. Catch it if you can. (ITV I think)
Film – Well, there were some smashing ones this year! Barbie and Oppenheimer being just two. But the one that takes the crown as far as I’m concerned, is from the franchise that includes one of my favourite films of all time, Raiders of the Lost Ark. Yes, Harrison Ford was back in the 5th and final instalment – as my ultimate film hero of all time – Indiana Jones: in ‘the Dial of Destiny’. I loved the CGI which made him young again in some of the scenes, I loved the way they incorporated so many of the previous famous characters from the earlier films – it took me back to when I saw the first one in 1981 and was hooked. Harrison Ford plays some of my ultimate heroes ever, (Han Solo- hello! Be still my beating heart! ) and can do no wrong as far as I’m concerned. Loved it and will probably watch it again at some stage soon. (Nb still on my list and also including the delectable Mr Forde, is ‘1883’, one of the prequels to Yellowstone. And, also he is apparently brilliant, in ‘Shrinking.‘ Anyone seen it?)
Theatre – ‘Mrs Doubtfire’ – the runaway favourite this year. I have seen some amazing productions, including the musical version of Groundhog Day which I saw with my son for my birthday in May. But this one took the biscuit. The whole cast were fab – incredible performances, I loved this musical adaptation of the famous Robin Williams film, and the twists they put into the plot, which made it work on the stage. Loved also that I went to it with so many of my fabulous QVC friends. Going to the panto again with them all, first week in January, can’t wait!
Funny/blooper – this one (here) stood out in my mind! Ruth Langsford getting her horsey terms wrong! TV comedy genius! I love Jackie’s reaction as well :-). You can’t not laugh along with them 🙂
Of course, there were obviously many, many more moments this year that I could’ve included – but it would keep my poor Web guy Phil Sobell toiling for too long if I didn’t stop soon. Thanks very much to Phil for all his help and support and making this happen for another year, as well.
Hope you enjoyed my look back at 2023.
There will be another little exclusive – letting you take part in the super movie posters quiz incorporating children’s crayon versions that we had to guess! – for Newsletter subscribers this week. All on the email coming out this weekend (see below on how to subscribe if you haven’t already) but for now that’s it for another review! I wonder what will be in next year’s…
QVC TOP DEALS FOR THE NEXT SEVEN DAYS
Btw the latest Will Gowing podcast is also out. If you want to check it out, you can search for inside QVC wherever you get your podcasts, or on the story section of our website QVCUK.com. The latest one, going live on Monday, the 1st of January, is with QVC’s gardening expert Michael Perry a.k.a. Mr Plant geek. Michael talks about some of the big stories in the world of gardening for 2024, his January jobs for gardeners, and the return of ‘My Garden Escape’ on QVC.
Friday (today) – go to qvcuk.com and search ‘today’s special value’ to see and buy what’s left of the new Skinsense supersize three piece day routine! Very affordable but powerful ingredients, well worth a look.
Also check out if you can, my ‘menopause your way’ hour, dubbed ‘midlife reset’, at 8 pm, including chats on the sofa with some lovely like-minded ladies, that’s followed by the launch of one of my favourite devices which I use all the time at home…
Saturday – Revitive essential leg massager with additional set of body pads. Such a useful device. I know a lot of my favourite products are Electricals and this one is no exception. The way my legs feel afterwards, and my feet, it really makes it worthwhile getting one of these, use it every day, especially if you’re more sedentary than you feel you should be. It exercises, massages, and stimulates all at once. Don’t miss it 🙂 I will have it in my 7 pm look good feel good show.
Sunday – time to think about the birdies with the Grumpy Gardener 12 kg ‘gold mix no mess wild bird food fat balls’ bundle! Joe knows how to make great fat balls! Sign up for the Auto delivery if you can (Now called subscribe and save).
Also, really looking forward to the 11 pm, final hour of 2023! It’s going to be a Fast and Furious “offers end today” show.
And as I usually do, I’m looking forward to seeing in the New Year on QVC. Then after the bongs at midnight I have the silent night pillows offer, see below.
Big deals ending Sunday night
Go to this section of our website each week to discover the current ones which often end on Sunday nights if there are any stocks left!
Big deals are available on air for usually a week, they may be longer online if stocks last. Occasionally they last a couple of weeks but there are new ones every Sunday night so come back again and see them on the link above.
Next week should include:
– style – tbc
– extra – Fitquest slim Trexx waited walking pole kit. Looks interesting!
– beauty – premium brand Perricone with the vitamin C trio collection
– main – prime 50 fighting fatigue 12 weeks supply. I’ll probably get this as I’m always looking for a good multivitamin.
Now back to the today’s special values for the rest of the week –
Monday – silent night air max anti allergen super wash DuPont pillows.
Tuesday – relatively new brand Tommie Cooper (I wonder how many jokes will involve the words “just like that”!) 4pk over the calf ultra guard socks, in a choice of four colours and two widths. Interesting! Look out at 11 pm on Tuesday when I will also have a garden and DIY sale hour.
Wednesday – SBC Arnica four-piece supersize collection
Thursday – organising and clear out time, with the three-piece large collapsible storage box bundle from Periea.
Friday – Skinn – Dimitri brings a five-piece cleanse and treat collection with a couple of choices of cleansers to trial.
Friday 9 pm the Homedics ‘stretch Mat plus’ is here once more and at 9 pm I will be launching the Sealy ‘advantage deluxe gel memory pillow top’ mattress offer, (or mattress and Divan), that goes on sale earlier in the week. Watch out for the third offer which is a mattress and Ottoman!
If I can choose, and I usually can, I always opt to sleep on one of these top of the range Sealy mattresses. Very happy to be launching it at 9 pm on Saturday night.
Anyway that’s it for another week, it’s been a marathon one this week because there’s been so much to say this year! Hopefully you’ve enjoyed it!
Have a lovely New Year, and I hope 2024 is everything you could wish for.
Next week – the QVC theatre gang go to see the panto. Oh yes we do! Have a lovely New Year and join me if you want to, as I’ll be seeing the New Year in on QVC!
Best wishes
Debs
PS want to subscribe to my newsletter? Click on the newsletter button at the bottom of this blog. If you are AOL, Sky or Yahoo, you may have to add me to your contacts in order for it to come through, and sometimes even then it doesn’t. So if you can subscribe with a different email if you don’t get it between Friday night and Sunday night each week, that might help. One lady told me she didn’t get the first one but she did get the next ones. Exclusive content just for my newsletter posse! Thank you all 🙂
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