When I was sixteen this man, my father’s friend, stood swaying in the front garden late one Friday night, trying to focus while he interrogated a young man who’d been drinking bad instant coffee and talking deep adolescent nonsense with me in my room for hours. It was kind of funny because we hadn’t done […]
The train I used to travel in – every day for a decade. One of my best reading, writing and people-watching places in CT. Laughed and struggled with commuters all along that line – through stoppages, storms, delays, holidays, Mondays, summer Fridays and icy winter dawns. Listened to the fabulous buskers, bought chips and bottled […]
November 1996 and I’m walking (not too slow and not too fast) around the curve of Judges, where it intersects with Republic Road, just after the traffic lights. Up past the willow trees bordering the garage and along the edge of Cresta Centre’s parking lot. It’s a summer evening – one of those huge-skied, jasmine scented, […]
This was first posted in January 2011 “I take shots of Atlantic cloudbanks pouring over the mountain backdrop where I live, seeing them melt as they reach the hot air in the valley and their vapours trail into fantastic melting shapes. Knowing that this scouring, punishing wind is probably the start of what’s causing floods […]
You don’t have to like everyone. Your life is full of people where liking or disliking them is completely irrelevant: your bank manager, the person who collects your refuse, the person driving your train, the local librarian, your pharmacist, every single shift at your region’s sewerage plant, the chief buyer at the local supermarket, every […]
A few years ago I was given the job of moderating an anonymous forum for step-parents. There were 30 forums in total, but this was the toughest gig for a few reasons: the majority of people posting were women and many responded with anger to a female moderator; also, I have personal experience being a […]
I’m so rusty at this – it’s been ages since I wrote anything. Covid is paralysing for so many reasons. A tiny part of it is how it makes telling a simple story seems so pointless, but I need to get over this: simple stories bring familiarity, comfort and even surprise. Let me tell you […]
A line from Joan Didion’s “The White Album” came to me while taking another picture of the moon tonight: “I recall a time when the dogs barked every night and the moon was always full.” It’s the third night this week and probably not the last. I’ve found myself in a loop of repetition before […]
I’ve written about it before, probably in a similar context, but after about 8 years the Incident’s turned out to be an important moment. At the time it just seemed like a sign, something to note about a trend, but the Incident has revealed itself as a defining moment – for me, at least. Here’s […]
Some situations seem impossible to handle. Chaotic scenarios full of tangled complexities that leave us bewildered and frozen. But if you can spare a little patience, a vital strand in the knotted ball becomes apparent – if you just reach down and pull it, the whole mess unravels and you can begin again. For me, […]
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