At the kitchen table, among the fractured rainbow of strewn crayons and sticky notes, they sit together, talking. She has donned the mantle of teacher; he is the willing (for now) pupil, pencil poised and ready, even though words are still being slowly assembled in his written vocabulary. ‘Now, first,’ she says, confident in her…
So! It’s Mothers Day on Sunday. I’m sure you hardly need reminding, but I’m here today to do just that – in an adorable, endearing way, obviously. That’s the tone I write all my posts in, isn’t it? (Don’t answer that.) Anyway, I’m here to advocate ease and convenience when buying presents and what better…
I first saw this song at the gym when it came on the monitors, but as my earplugs weren’t working I couldn’t listen to it. Frustrated, I was there jogging along thinking I DIDN’T KNOW RUPERT SANG. HOW DID THIS PIECE OF INFORMATION PASS ME BY? IS MY POP CULTURE RADAR MALFUNCTIONING? IS IT INAPPROPRIATE…
I was lucky enough to be able to make the decision to stay at home as long as I did with the kids until they reached school age. Blogging and writing assisted this, true, but it wasn’t an easy choice. Then the opportunity came along for my current role and as I talked about it…
I’m over at the Emerging Writers’ Festival blog today, talking about my first few months there. Come on over and say hi!
My request to keep this particular birthday low-key seemed to have been noted until the other day when Keira announced she would like a three-tier birthday cake. She’d even drawn her ‘concept’ of what she wanted this cake to look like: “Honey, that just isn’t going to happen. No way, no how.” “Why not?” “For…
There is a flat screen television in the lobby of the school office. When it is on it plays photo slideshows of what certain grades or students have been doing that is of interest to parents such as myself, when we’re there early, killing time. Such was the case this afternoon. I was early, and…
Singing competitions aren’t to everyone’s television viewing tastes; I know, because I’m usually one of those people. That said, I’m enjoying The Voice and this performance by Brittany made me tear up. So lovely.
Okay, here we go. I said before Christmas that I admire Anna Funder and wanted to read Stasiland – well, now I have. And all the hype is justified – it’s terrific. I remember when the Berlin Wall fell – it was a month short of my eleventh birthday. As I looked at the news, with the…
