“I’m not sure how to help you,” I croak from beneath a blanket of heavy cold. Next to me in the car, my daughter’s face cracks and she begins to cry. I pull out another tissue and try to excavate the accumulation in my nostrils without much success. “I just don’t get it. I know […]
Read More
During a sort out which involved the deconstruction of beds and movement of other assorted furniture, a small navy blue box was unearthed from my past. In it is a collection of silver teaspoons and sugar tongs given by my late father as a gift to my late mother for Christmas 1953. Running my fingers […]
Read More
“Can you deliver a presentation on What Is Therapy? for Mental Health Awareness Week?” I was asked in an email recently. I sent back a reply, “Sure, that’s no problem.” What could be simpler than a therapist writing about what therapy is? When it came to it though, it was tougher than I’d imagined. What […]
Read More
In the newspaper last week I read a report about a study that found university students this term more likely to suffer from imposter syndrome because they had won their places without sitting exams. It said that students from disadvantaged backgrounds are particularly susceptible. Whilst all this might be true the foundations of imposter syndrome […]
Read More
“I’ve been thinking about getting a phone that’s just a phone. One you can only make phone calls on,” I tell my daughter. “You never make phone calls. You don’t like the phone,” she says. She’s right. The only thing I hardly ever use my phone for is talking to people on the phone. “Whenever […]
Read More
“It’s the anniversary of the day we brought Daisy home today,” my daughter tells me as we’re driving out to take the dogs for a walk. A lot has happened in those four years but I can’t imagine having been through any of it without her. I’ve often thought that Daisy’s sight problems are a […]
Read More
I’m travelling to London. I’ll just let that sink in. It’s true. I am going out of my town into London, driving an actual car further than the supermarket for the first time in the best part of two years. I’ve left my house far too early, and I have programmed the SatNav to help […]
Read More
On an unseasonably autumnal August Bank Holiday I am celebrating my birthday by sitting in the queue at a drive-in McDonalds, determined to have cheap ice cream. My daughter and her boyfriend are in the car in front, and my son and his girlfriend are in front of them. A text comes through from my […]
Read More
The arrival of the puppy has sparked a shift in my older dog which I hadn’t anticipated and reminds me of a shift that once took place in me. Bringing a new dog into the family caused us to worry that our established dog would protest. In fact, it has unlocked a second childhood in […]
Read More
When my father died amongst his possessions was a big claret-coloured notebook. He’d bought it to catalogue his vast record collection, a task that sat on his metaphorical “to-do” list for decades He had never written in it, and now he was dead. The paper was a smoothly satisfying alluring cream colour. It was also […]
Read More
Recent Comments