Just a couple of months ago, 2020 seemed full of promise. I’d been telling people it was MY year, as things began to fall into place in different parts of my life: my freelance writing business was growing, I had a whiteboard full of doable plans and ideas (some actually marked as done), and a …
I don’t have a degree. I’ve enrolled at uni twice in the past – both long after I left school at sixteen – and didn’t make it to the end either time (for the record, pregnancy and (unfounded) financial worries kiboshed the Creative Writing degree in my thirties and workplace politics and frustration in my …
My Self-Directed, Alternative Learning Experience Read More »
I’m a member of a book club, but not as you know it. Our book club – the official name is (Wine &) Book Club, and our members are sometimes called Wobblers – meets more or less each month at a local pub where we have dinner and chat first, and book chat (usually!) after. …
A dozen dusty chickens scuttled ahead of us in the dirt, parting like bobbing, feather-capped waves on the Red Sea, if you believe in that sort of miracle. It was a fitting introduction to San Simon, a local deity we were seeking out in a small Guatemalan market town in the mountains. Looking up at …
Depressed Cake Shop takes on mental health stigma, one grey cake at a time. The stats – the average, that is – for the number of people to suffer from a mental health problem is 1 in 4. Worse, in some geographical and demographic areas, this drops to 1 in 3.
tape measure noun a length of tape or thin flexible metal, marked at graded intervals for measuring Shop fitters are called shop fitters for a reason. The “fitter” part is actually pretty important. You know? So that everything fits in? I gather tape measures would feature strongly among their list of must-haves.
It’s Saturday afternoon. I’m looking relaxed and enjoying myself, despite the underlying pressure I’m hiding from my fellow race-goers. You see, I’m at the country picnic races with a handful of girlfriends . A last minute decision to go, clothing crisis, picnic thrown hastily into a basket. My window of opportunity for getting ready – …
Literary dreams do come true! Visiting Nijo Castle in Kyoto was on my must-see list after reading Across the Nightingale Floor (and the rest of the Tales of the Otori series) and it didn’t disappoint.
Lights are draped between palm trees, people are wandering past with giant cushions and we catch the smell of curry drifting in the air. A possum scurries under a chair. The sun hasn’t yet dropped but the sky is a pastel wash of blues, pinks and orange. We’re at the movies in Darwin’s outdoor Deckchair Cinema.
What are the must-see-must-do icons of New York for new visitors? Central Park would be up there, the view from Top of the Rock, the Statue of Liberty – these would have to be on most top 5 lists for NY NY. I’d add shopping (come on, it’s New York!), catching the subway, hailing a …