Category Archives: Life in General

On Doubt

I have no idea what’s going on, England has just given a man who seems like evil incarnate a mandate to do whatever he wants. Figures seem to show that child poverty is rising; that more and more homeless people are dying; and that the Tory policy of austerity is demonising our most vulnerable. Yet, […]

American Takeout

We’ve been back almost two weeks, and I’m still reeling from my American experience. So much so I can’t seem to clear my head enough to write about it. So I’ve decided to write about food instead. Anyone who remembers my Kitchen Bitch blog of old will know I love to cook, but (not so) […]

Brooklyn Morning

It’s six-o-five, still dark, and I am sitting by an open window at the dining table of our New York apartment. The city is waking, cars, which never quite stop moving, are gathering force, a man walks by with a small backpack on. Across the street is a school advertising ‘college access for all’ in […]

One More Sleep

I should be packing – which means finishing the ironing I began yesterday.I should be cleaning the house so our return won’t be too gruesome.I should be going to the Post Office to bank the cheque that arrived this morning, so I have money when I get back.I should be at least thinking about what […]

Rational Velvet

I began this post yesterday, and spent all day trying to format it using a flashy editor called Elementor. I use it for constructing pages, but blimey it was a struggle for a blog post, and I inadvertently published before adding all the text and images. I’ve sorted that now, and will have to keep […]

Confessions of a Weekend Reader

Once upon a time weekends were for partying, with a constant supply of new frocks, impossible shoes, make-up, booze, and friends. This lasted, as an impression if not a way of life, for about twenty years. Though marriage, motherhood and all that those entail meant things became less extravagant from my mid twenties, I still […]

Reasons to be Cheerful

I am grateful* for many things – beef dripping; Edward Enninful’s steerage of British Vogue; the word ‘plank’… – but today I am particularly grateful for sandwiches. On Tuesday afternoon I got an iMessage from a much loved friend asking if D and I would like to go to her house on Wednesday, at five, […]

Spatial Awareness

Saturday morning: running with snot, headachy, feeble, in no fit state to do do anything but return to bed, I found myself dragging large pieces of furniture across a carpeted room. As I think I mentioned in my last London Notes post, returning to Moffat hasn’t been as depressing as I expected. In fact, it […]

London Notes #12

A fair – The Shows?* – is being erected on the other side of the heath for the bank holiday weekend, so we used it as a reason to take a walk after a sluggish morning. And I remembered to take my camera, so here’s what I saw** (and found interesting enough to snap): Looking […]