(…it’s me. I was wondering if after all this time you’d like to meet; to go over everything…) SORRY for having not been in touch for an extended time. I haven’t even popped in to to leave a little silly ditty or a scrap of pathetic poetry. I do have an excuse, but I can’t reveal yet what it is. Let’s just call it a project (Ah what’s she up […]
My ten year olds are doing a project called, “My Place in Space”. Helping them with their research has served me up a big dose of ‘cosmic vertigo’, which is (according to the ABC Radio podcast of the same name) “that dizzy felling you get when you think about the incomprehensible scale of space”. It could also be described as having your mind blown. I remember that the infinite scale […]
Samanta Shweblin is the writer of an acclaimed short novel called Distancia de Rescate, the translation of which (renamed Fever Dream) has recently been longlisted for the Booker. ‘Distancia de Rescate’ translates to ‘Rescue Distance’, a term Samanta invented to describe the variable safe distance between a mother and child. I haven’t read the book yet (I may not ever, it sounds terrifying) but I immediately identify with rescue distance. […]
I know we love our dog. But then he goes missing and I really know we love our dog. And then while I’m trudging up the hill in the dark trying not to be futile with a torch, I accidentally think about how much we loved our dog. And the past tense clumps in my throat and comes out in a little dark and lonely hillside sob. It was just another Saturday evening: […]
I saw some teenagers being cruel to a woman in the street. They made horrible comments, laughed and jeered and then turned away without a second thought. She was middle aged, wearing a gold bomber jacket and her hair was a brilliant who-gives-a-fuck orange frizz. She was shorter than my ten year olds and her hands were clenched in little angry fists. But her face betrayed a dismay and embarrassment […]
DISCLAIMER: I am pre-menstrual. My boobs hurt, I have pimples and I am in a right grump with whomever it was that created females actually. Such lazy, bullshit design. I’d have put me in for repairs or replacement by now if I were machinery. Very temperamental and really leaky. FFS. Anyway, to the point. TEN THINGS THAT REALLY BLOODY(!) ANNOY ME: Getting a fright. Just the other night, I was very […]
School goes back tomorrow and I have a serious case of Sunday blues except on a Wednesday. I am grateful that they are back on a Thursday just for two days and then home again for a long weekend. Nothing like easing one back into routine by stuffing up the routine after two days. I mean I can’t possibly pack lunches more than twice in a row just yet. I have […]
When your New Year doesn’t get off to an altogether good start, I think it’s okay to try again on say about the tenth of January. That seems a reasonable frame of time to get settled into a new year. I mean, when we start a new job it takes at least a fortnight to hit your straps. And with New Year’s Eve being such a demanding temptress of a […]
“This may be the last time you see or hear me. The planes are launching air strikes. In the name of human rights and child rights we hope they will get us out of Aleppo. We cannot go out because we are afraid of the bombs. We hope they can get us out of here. We want to live like the rest of the world. We want peace. We wish to […]
Dear Spaghetti Bolognese, Our beloved but humble dish, to you I owe great debts of sanity, time, health and happiness. These are busy, busy days, and I am ever more conscious of how glad I am to know you. We go back a long way, you and I. Remember you were the first dish I learnt to make from start to finish (never mind the ‘chicken soup’ I made from […]
megoracle.com 