I've been having a mopey few days. You know, drifting into self-absorbed disappointment about life, for no good reason. So I was unreasonably amused by a story on the BBC this morning; some random Irish teenager walked into a shop and slapped a shop worker with a big wet fish. A bream, in fact. I'm... Continue Reading →
How does one write something nice?
My husband wants me to write a "nice" short story. I suppose I can see why he wants this. He's so far volunteered to read the short stories I have produced; the first one was about a prostitute who dies while showing off her jewellery to her children, in an accident involving a pet goat.... Continue Reading →
Australia – Shangri-la for Europeans
I've become quite addicted to yet another daytime TV staple, a reality programme called "Wanted Down Under". It's a rather irritatingly structured show about people who want to emigrate to Australia. They're given an introduction to employment opportunities, house prices, and whatever lifestyle opportunity they think their move will open up to them. They are... Continue Reading →
Long weekend in LA in 2008
As predicted, this blog has somewhat died a death. Its cousin, The Resting Writer , is where I actually write stuff. So here's an old account of my weekend in Los Angeles in Summer 2008. I was on a business trip that lasted about ten days, so I had a weekend in the middle. It... Continue Reading →
Knowledge in England
In common with many arts graduates, I delight in accumulating mostly useless knowledge. Since I'm not the brightest person I know, I tend to assume that this is knowledge also accumulated by everyone else. Interacting with a variety of different people suggests that this is not the case, and so I end up feeling bad... Continue Reading →
Useless days
Some days, I get to the end of the day, and realise that I could have achieved more, or at any rate destroyed less, by not getting out of bed at all. This is one of those days. You know you're off to a bad start when you have to write yourself a list of the... Continue Reading →
Fred
I wrote a rather strange story for a writing course back in 2009. Any comments most welcome. The rosemary was looking a bit peaky. It usually survived the frequent episodes of drought quite well, but recently the spiny leaves had turned quite brown. Delilah took the small white watering can off the round iron... Continue Reading →
What should my novel be about?
My husband has been badgering me to write something more comprehensive, and fictional, than my blog. Of course, being an arts graduate, I would very much like to write a book. In 2010, I enrolled in a creative writing course, to see whether maybe there was some sort of golden rule of writing I could... Continue Reading →
Boring reflections on motherhood
January is never a good time to reflect on life in general. It is therefore also a really bad time to reflect on life changes, like "becoming a mother". I'm not sure why I "become" something else, while my husband gets given a son. I am somehow changed, and he gets added to. Anyway. So... Continue Reading →
I want to break free
Life in my house is always fun, which is rather a good thing too, as I spend nearly 24 hours a day in it. Some days, I'm full of motivation for getting all my chores done - drop husband off at the station at 6.50 am, hang around waiting for Sainsbury's to open at 7... Continue Reading →
The resting writer 