After pointing out last week that my first port of call on ‘Independence Day’ was unlikely to be the pub, you will be unsurprised to learn that I flexed our newly decreed independence in a different direction yesterday. Shunning the hospitality industry (worry not, I will be back) and grabbing a mask, I headed to…
Hot under the collar
Back on home turf this week, I feel I can speak with some authority about concerns around Boris declaring July 4th as some sort of ‘Independence Day’. As we ‘ease’* from full lockdown, admittedly these concerns are all pretty self-centred, but I will air them anyway: I feel sure that other menopausal women will be…
I’m a captive audience
Not really classing myself as a team sport person, I find myself surprisingly interested this week in the tentative return of football and tennis to our screens. I am strangely reassured to see the return of Domino’s and Renault to our commercial breaks (I draw the line at Bet365 thanks to my Methodist upbringing) taking…
P’s and Q’s
Who knows what phase of lockdown easing we are in right now – bubble-speak makes for confusion. I like clear rules (I hear you, Monica), but there is a fuzziness about this current phase that makes me worry that I am stepping over lines I can not see. From what I hear, I am not the…
Comparitis
I came out of moth balls this week and returned to some sort of ‘normal’ working life, albeit without many students present. At least I had a dry run. My clock shuddered reluctantly to alarm again, I rediscovered petrol stations and I noted that I felt almost excited to be in a traffic jam on…
Bear hugs
I think I have mentioned already that I have been keeping a jar of coloured notes during lockdown, all stating people, things or experiences that I have been missing most. My aim – when I am legitimately able to empty the jar – is to remind myself not to take ‘things’ for granted again. Well,…
The mother biscuit
One of the most difficult things about lockdown has not being able to visit my 93 year old mother. She is 94 next week and, because I am now allowed to officially sit in her back garden or at the opposite end of a shared park bench, I will use my virtual ‘half term’ to…
Wear or tear?
I have written before about kintsugi, but since I am good at breaking things, and because I feel we are going through a time of repair, I have decided to revisit the topic. Likewise, a lot of things have been revisited during lockdown, so I might write about that as well. The traditional Japanese art of…
Dusty Bluebells
I might have mentioned my lack of garden quite a lot lately. Sorry. I try and rein in the self pity but it is so evident that my little green eye is vexed by anyone who has a small patch of land in which to see out their ‘Stay Home’. It is not the lack…
Listless Zooming?
Have I ever declared to you that I am a list person? Well I am, big time. I write lists all over the place to keep my menopausal brain limbered up and so that I can go to bed feeling I have achieved something. Pathetic I know. I even write things on a list that…
