Sunday Blog 151 – 1 September 2024 Almost to the very end of her long life, my mother, Bet, remained who she was, of sound mind. Funny, spunky, unpredictable. In the emergency department last week where she was being treated for her broken hip, she was next to a man who had imbibed a little …
Tag Archives: Travel
Re-reading Jane Austen
Sunday Blog 140 – 16th June 2024 I’m guessing the very first time I read Pride and Prejudice (P&P) I was 16, when the excellent 1981 TV series first aired. I remember the copy we had in our family library. Our shelves were stuffed with classic fiction, poetry, and history. How I loved the small, …
Hotel rooms
Sunday Blog 131 – 14th April 2024 While it may seem odd, I always make my bed when staying in a hotel. The room looks nicer every day and, in my humble opinion, you’re less likely to lose things. You can really enjoy the space all the time. This is perhaps influenced by the fact …
On this day 26 years ago
Sunday Blog 130 – 7th April Diary Entry, 7th April 1998, 11 Olibiados Street, Thessaloniki It’s the morning. I awoke at 4 feeling distinctly queazy after dreaming about eating a mouthful of dried Earl Grey leaves and then trying to get rid of them by washing them down with water. Anyway, that plus the very …
Banning tech from the bedroom
Sunday Blog 129 – 31st March 2024 This week, spurred on by a podcast on sleep hygiene and the horrors of incessant social media, I took decisive action. Definitely no devices in the bedroom. My iPhone, iPad and AirPods are now banished to the study to charge overnight. If I want to use them in …
Sydney with Taylor
Sunday Blog 124 – 25th Feb 2024 The last time I was in Sydney was before Covid. Finally I’m back, travelling for work, accidentally coinciding my visit with Taylor Swift. As I wait at the Artisan Hotel off Pitt Street for my dinner companion I think about it all. The Sydney streets had become smudged …
David
Sunday Blog 116 – 24th December 2023 With my second-last blog for 2023 I’m sharing a nugget from a recent online writing course I did with Dani Shapiro to help re-boot my writing practice. Dani Shapiro is one of my favourite authors – she writes both fiction and non-fiction and teaches writing classes every now …
Giving Up The Ghost
Sunday Blog 104 – 1st October 2023 While I was away on holiday, I took two actual physical books. One of them was a copy of Hilary Mantel’s Giving Up the Ghost: A Memoir, which details her struggle with endometriosis. I was too mean to lend it to my husband after he finished his one …
Reflections from the city of ghosts
Sunday Blog 103 – Sunday 24th September It always takes me some time to “arrive” once I return from a trip. One of the biggest mysteries of travel to me not just exploring new places, but also being once again in places that you were before. It’s like re-reading a book over time, when you …
An Independent Greek Holiday
Sunday Blog 102 – 17th September 2023 It’s there in my Vision Book – “I allow myself to have regular independent Greek holidays with Zoe.” My beautiful half-Greek daughter. This year, finally I have achieved this. And it was absolutely in every way worth the wait. It’s a complicated life path to here – Greek …