Mini-graduation

Sunday Blog 181 – 20th April 2025 As a life-long learner I’m always signed up to some course or other, and last week I formally graduated from a pilot one-year course for people like me who’ve been a consumer representative for some time. Called CREST – Consumer Representative Education Support and Training, it was designed …

Communication is truth

Sunday Blog 179 – 6th April 2025 It would seem that there are consequences to removing my head from the sand of world politics. Much greater effort is required to ensure that my spirits remain buoyant in these interesting, interesting times. So today I returned to the scene of my undergraduate degree. I left this …

No makes Way for Yes Part Two

Sunday Blog 178 – 30th March 2025 I have a card with the saying No Makes Way for Yes on my noticeboard in the hope it will enchant me to say no more often. It’s been there so long it’s yellowing around the edges. In 2019 I wrote a blog with the same title – …

Slow is smooth and smooth is fast

Sunday Blog 177 – 23rd March 2025 I recently realised that I haven’t ever really blogged about the volunteer work I do in my neighbourhood. I’ve been living here for twenty-three years, and for at least fifteen off those years, I’ve moved in and out of the dance of volunteering. There’s something vulnerable about giving …

Throwing pots

Sunday Blog 176 – 16th March 2025 This month I’m participating in the March Micro Marathon with Smokelong Quarterly, producing a piece of flash fiction and non-fiction each day. Simplistically put, flash is a piece of less than 1000 words. Like throwing pots, one after the other off the potter’s wheel. After this month is …

Easter Story

Sunday Blog 175 – 9th March 2025 The nun with the small beard at University chides me for my bitterness at the Catholic childhood, the litany of endless sexual shaming, the nonsense tales of hellfire, the damnation and control. While at home the hellfire was more muted, but it still lapped at our feet, especially …

My Favourite Childhood Photo

Sunday Blog 174 – 2 March 2025 It’s one of my favourite childhood photos, ever. And there are a lot of photos. I mean, a lot. I think it’s my broad smile. I wasn’t always a smily child, in fact I was something of a brooding scowler.  I’m sure I recall that perfect Perth Spring …

Witnessing in 2025

Sunday Blog 173 – 23 Feb 2025 When darling husband mentioned the UK Prime Minister’s name this week and I didn’t know who he was talking about, I thought perhaps I’d taken my news and current affairs sabbatical too far. With the same tentative gesture of venturing into the shed, pulling a box from its …