Tiring of the 80s playlist I’d felt enthusiastic about when putting it on “Twisted Sister” are the final straw and I switch to something called “Jazz in the background” which seems to fit the mood for a Saturday evening dinner. Daisy, the Labrador, sidles out of the kitchen and curls up next to my daughter […]
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I’m making Cornetti, grating orange zest, and adding it to the dough. While I do so the children are arguing about which way up the forks and knives have to go in the dishwasher cutlery basket. My daughter says that the only reason she doesn’t load the dishwasher is that my son complains that she […]
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Making a shopping list I’m planning pizza night at home in an attempt to try and make life a little less mundane for the adult children who I imagine are having a tougher time dealing with lockdown than I am, someone who makes Howard Hughes appear outgoing. ME. “Alexa, add nduja to the shopping list.” […]
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I’m telling a client that trying to breathe deeply while he’s having a panic attack is a bad idea because one of panicking’s best features is the ability to convince you that you cannot breathe. I tell him, “Just try reminding yourself that even though you’re sure you’re about to have a heart attack and […]
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Coming in from sweeping the leaves and musing on one of the few benefits of lockdown, a distinct decline in takeaway wrappers tossed over the front wall, I say, to nobody in particular, “Why do so many houses along here still have their Christmas lights up?” My daughter is hunched over her laptop systematically changing […]
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We’re watching “Inside Out”, a Pixar animation about Riley, a young girl, and her unsettled emotions after a family move from her beloved Minnesota home to a new life in San Francisco. It sounds suspiciously like a busman’s holiday and I’m not at all sure I’m going to get anything from it. Before it begins […]
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I’m trying to delete my social media accounts but it turns out that it isn’t as straightforward as you’d think. Like Donald Trump, freed this week from the responsibility to censure himself, I’m finding it hard to let go. I’ve considered that it might be symptomatic of something deeper. A reluctance to end things. My […]
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It’s New Year’s Day and we’re watching “Dunkirk” a film so full of dramatic trauma that, midway through, I have to go off to the toilet and look at the latest COVID figures on my phone for light relief. Often it’s been hard to see the benefits of a year most people are happy to […]
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I’m looking at a Venn diagram entitled, “Am I Overthinking This?” drawn by artist Michelle Rial and it’s providing a welcome distraction from trying to work out if we need an extra bottle of milk in the shopping. I’ve been saying for months that doing food shopping online is not only safer but also more […]
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One of the best things about lockdown is that I don’t have to go into shops, and not going into shops means that I haven’t had to listen to Mariah Carey singing “All I Want For Christmas Is You” incessantly while people push their way past one another buying cheap cologne and a Cadbury’s selection […]
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