There are three UNESCO Cities of Literature in the world: Edinburgh, Iowa and Melbourne.  Doubtless each of these cities is rightly proud of this honour: but for me the first recipient, Edinburgh, has something extra.  Edinburgh is not only a self-described “city built on books… Read full post »

You don’t know it, but our paths cross for a few moments almost every day.  Each morning I glimpse you gliding on your glassy pond as I pass by on a crowded bus that stutters and jerks through traffic.   The sight of you - regal, elegant, lovely - lifts my… Read full post »

Every writer knows the rules of fiction.  Show, don’t tell,  make sure every piece of action develops the plot, and for heaven’s sake have a satisfying ending.  But I have a problem: I want to create fiction that is believable, that reflects real life.  And I don&rsquo… Read full post »

After sixteen years of unwavering vegetarianism.  I’m not sure why I suddenly wanted to try fish again.  It was probably a combination of constantly hearing about the benefits of Omega-3 oils , noticing that since arriving at the wrong side of 30, my knees have begun to squeak alarmin… Read full post »

Here in the UK, for many years we had a tradition of getting excited over the Christmas number one: that is, the single that happened to be at the top of the charts on Christmas Day.  Bookies made a fortune taking bets on it, careers were forged and broken on the… Read full post »

When not laughing at lolcats or playing Facebook scrabble (or “Lexulous” as it has been somewhat desperately renamed in a bid to avoid further lawsuits), I spend a lot of my time on the interwebs looking for writing competitions to enter, or calls for submissions from journals. Most of th… Read full post »

 

The sound of my flip-flops echo absurdly as I walk down the corridor of the punishment block.  It’s as good a metaphor as any for the change that has taken place in this most desperate of places in the fifty years since Auschwitz was liberated.  Once, jackboots stamped through… Read full post »

I put my bedlinen and towels into the washing machine this morning, a thing I like to do with something akin to acceptable regularity. It’s a reasonably new machine and I’m still discovering new settings on it. Today, I discovered the “Bath and bed” function. I correctly guess… Read full post »

 

On my train journey to work, I pass lots of houses with big back gardens, and I can’t help noticing that there seem to be some seriously lucky kids living in these places.  So far, I have noticed gardens containing a chute, some swings, an inflatable bouncy castle, a ful-size… Read full post »

A few recommendations gleaned from my recent week in Cracow, for anyone who is heading that way soon. We stayed in an apartment called Galaxy, rented through Old Town Apartments. It cost just over £400, which between four of us worked out very reasonably for our four-night stay.… Read full post »

A few recommendations gleaned from my recent week in Cracow, for anyone who is heading that way soon. We stayed in an apartment called Galaxy, rented through Old Town Apartments. It cost just over £400, which between four of us worked out very reasonably for our four-night stay.… Read full post »

A few recommendations gleaned from my recent week in Cracow, for anyone who is heading that way soon. We stayed in an apartment called Galaxy, rented through Old Town Apartments">Old Town Apartments. It cost just over £400, which between four of us worked out very reasonably for our four-n… Read full post »

A few recommendations gleaned from my recent week in Cracow, for anyone who is heading that way soon. We stayed in an apartment called Galaxy, rented through <a href="http://warsaw.old-town-apartments.tobook.com/Poland/Hotels/Old-Town-Apartments">Old Town Apartments</a>. It cost just ov… Read full post »

I passed a man sitting on the street today.  He had dark scruffy hair that was sticking to his forehead, and his clothes were dirty and unkempt. He caught my eye and began, “Excuse me, miss…”  Instinctively, I said, meekly, pathetically, “Sorry.”  And I k… Read full post »

It’s not an original statement to say that we’re living in the future.  But it was brought home to me with particular force a moment ago.  Not, I’m sorry to say, because I’ve just witnessed a miraculous example of modern medicine or life-saving technology.  I&rs… Read full post »

The sky was grey and the rain battered off the glass above me.  Outside, the raindrops caused mud to spatter up from the ground, covering the windows.  I sat down at my laptop and updated my Facebook status. “Doing yoga in the warm conservatory, listening to the rain pattering on the… Read full post »

I admit, I’m not always paying complete attention when I’m surfing the internet. Sometimes I’m distracted by the TV, or Dave, or Twitter, or Dave Twittering, or any number of interesting things.

 So when, a couple of months ago, I signed a pledge to blog on Ada Lovelace Day,… Read full post »

Like most self-respecting geeks, I subscribe to a lot of RSS feeds. This means that every day, I receive between 100-150 updates from blogs, news sites and other corners of the interweb that at one point or another have interested me enough to click on that wee orange arrow. Sometimes I… Read full post »

We’re still waiting to finalise our house purchase: the electrical report identified one problem, which has now been fixed, but dealing with that has held up the process, so we still don’t have a written acceptance. However, the flat is now labelled “Sold STC’ on the website,… Read full post »

Is it unforgivably shallow that I’m watching knackered celebrities climb Kilimanjaro to help people who are desperately poor, and all I can think is, “If that were me, I’d have a face like a pizza after about 20 minutes: how come they all have perfect skin and flawless complexions…

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Regularly we are told that things aren’t what they used to be.  This is an obvious and slightly pointless thing to say.  I used to be a blonde haired toddler who sucked her thumb and once got lost naked on a beach.  I used to be a morose teenager who wore… Read full post »

We have viewed approximately three million flats in the last few weeks, and we haven’t liked most of them very much. Luckily, we did see one that we both thought was nice, and so we made a very cheeky offer this week. It was refused, but the owners said…

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…and found myself thinking a thought I’d never thunked before. “Damn! I can’t remember the waste management hierarchy!”

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