Sunday Blog 243 – 26th July 2026 I’m a couple of weeks behind in posting; this was before the Bordeaux fires. Thinking of everyone impacted by fires across Europe. It all started with my misunderstanding about the distance between Chartres and Bordeaux. When initially planning my holiday, I mistakenly thought I could walk the Chartres …
Author Archives: pipbrennan
A Week Alone in Paris
Sunday Blog 242 – 19th July 2026 Last Sunday blog, I was checking into my Airbnb at 7am on Tuesday 30th June, thanks to my kind host who took pity on me, a long-haul flight survivor. I didn’t dare test the wheeled backpack-plus-suitcase combination on the metro from Charles de Gaulle airport, opting for a …
It’s not the getting there, it’s the arriving*
*With apologies to Ralph Waldo Emerson, who never took a long haul flight Sunday Blog 241 – 12th July 2026 I can hold myself back no longer. Travel spam incoming. Perhaps starting with my getting-there snafus will make this series on my French odyssey a less insufferable. Here goes. I’m rewinding us back to 30th …
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Post-traumatic Growth is a Thing – Part Three
Taming the Triggers Sunday Blog 240 – 5th July 2026 Today I wanted to tackle the concept of triggers, and offer a message of hope. Back in 2002, in the early days after the assault, on Mother’s Day I took my daughter Zoë to a sweet child-friendly cafe with a playground, for a meet-up with …
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On the eve of a journey…
Sunday Blog 239 – 28th June 2026 I’ve more to add to my post-traumatic growth series of blogs – but today just wasn’t the day. I needed to take a breath, bask in the nervous excitement of the-day-before-travel. Tomorrow I fly out to Paris for five weeks of research, writing, working, catching up with friends …
Post-traumatic Growth is a Thing – Part Two
Sunday Blog 238 – 21st June 2026 In the middle of the night, 10th May 2002, I woke up, lay in my bed for a moment or two. Then I heard the soft padding of feet. Perhaps that sound had woken me up. A subtle sound that seemed to come from the kitchen. Could that …
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Post-traumatic growth is a Thing – Part One
Sunday Blog 237 – 14 June 2026 I’d been at an art workshop in London, in the very early days after my arrival, in 1990. I was trying on new identities on the other side of the world from my birth family. Anyway, at the end of the course, a few of us decided to …
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Seven Year Cycles
Or should I call this muted, belated birthdays? Sunday Blog 236 – 7 June 2026 Maybe it’s a man thing, indifference about birthdays. My father was always slightly bemused by the fuss we created on his big day, but he went along with it cheerfully enough. Darling husband (who may or may not be somewhat …
Turns Out
I should’ve been WOOPing all these goal-setting years… Sunday Blog 235 – 24th May 2026 For those of you who know me, goal setting is my jam. There’s nothing I love more than cracking the spine of a planner in January and spending a whole afternoon paddling around in all my wishes and dreams and …
Remembering/forgetting
Sunday Blog 234 – 17 May 2026 I’m in Margaret River for the Readers and Writers Festival. Previous visits to this town have washed me through with melancholy. Five years ago in 2021 when I attended the same event, I was gripped with a sharp grief at the absence of my parent’s generation. I could …