There is a particular kind of question that has been getting me into trouble for most of my life.

It is rarely followed by anything sensible.

Sometimes it leads to a new fitness class. Sometimes it leads to an unnecessarily deep investigation into something I saw on the Internet. Occasionally it involves spending £17.99 on a product I absolutely did not need. And sometimes, annoyingly, it turns out to be brilliant.

I have decided to stop pretending this is a character flaw and instead, I’m turning it into a job.

I’m going to investigate the things that make my life a little more interesting. I’ll try the products, experiences, ideas, trends and slightly questionable suggestions that catch my eye, then report back. Not with a sponsored “OMG, you NEED this!” and a strategically placed photograph of me looking delighted beside it. With an actual verdict.

Or was it, frankly, a load of old nonsense because there is an awful lot being sold to women these days. Some of it is wonderful, clever. Sometimes surprisingly useful, but some of it appears to have been invented by someone who has never had to find a clean school uniform at 7.42am on a Tuesday morning. I’m interested in the difference.

I’m also interested in something else….

At 50, I have become increasingly aware that life can become very good at repeating itself. Work. Family. Housework. Gym. Shopping. Coffee. Repeat. There is comfort in routine, of course, but too much of it and I start feeling as though I’m living in an exceptionally well-organised waiting room.

My brain doesn’t help because it likes novelty, questions, the shiny new rabbit hole sitting temptingly at the side of the road. So rather than constantly trying to drag it back to the straight and narrow, I’m going to give it a job.

Some experiments will be cheap, ridiculous and involve things I would never normally buy. Some may turn into products I think other people would genuinely love. And some will end with me saying:

You can learn from those too as this isn’t about finding the perfect life. It is about finding the interesting bits in the life we’ve actually got. So, coffee in hand, notebook open.

You can find all the experiments here