The first time I ever kissed the (self-proclaimed) Northern Love Machine it was by a toilet, in a sticky-carpeted nightclub in the romantic hotspot that is Reading. Later, he warned me he wasn’t the “slushy” type, because “Where I’m from – in Rochdale – we aren’t like that.”

Two years later we welcomed our baby girl into the world and a year after that we got married.

That will be three years ago this summer but, in many ways, it feels like much longer. We’ve been through lots together in the past three years: saving up for a house, moving 200 miles to another part of the UK, buying a house, working hard in different jobs, getting pregnant with baby number two. Continue reading »