I have had three personal trainers in the past five years – all young, all men and all so lean you would use a vat of olive oil should you ever need to fry them.
I’ve liked them all, and I’ve learnt different things from each. Continue reading “My ideal personal trainer” →
Sometimes the best things are those that we stumble upon.
It was never part of my plan to play the organ for funerals, but it just so happened that I became a church organist because I could play the piano and there was a vacancy on the organ stool. Continue reading “Why I love funerals” →
There I was making all the preparations for Arch’s fifth birthday – cake (tick), presents (tick), balloons (tick), card (tick).
“Now darling,” I said. “There’s something you need to learn and it’s very important. Continue reading “Arch says “thank you” – and makes me sad” →
For me, there have been few surprises about motherhood. There have been some, for sure, but in general Arch, who is now almost five, has brought me the awe, exhaustion, love, fun and general all-round blissedoutness I had always anticipated. Continue reading “Having a baby has made me want a baby even more” →
Last time I blogged, I was asking for help.
My pride at my four-year-old son, Arch, felt so overwhelming I felt it should not be seen in public. I wondered how other parents handled (or concealed) this obscenely primitive emotion. Continue reading “Why I was not proud to see Arch being a star in his nativity play” →
I’d love to take the credit for this poem but I can’t. My only credit is knowing the utterly brilliant Rosie Miles. Fans of Greenbelt Festival, read and enjoy.
If heaven (2) Continue reading “Greenbelt 10 – (heaven might be a racecourse full of people)” →
I wrote this poem one Mothers’ Day several years after my mum had died. Recently I lost Arch, aged three, in the supermarket for about five panic-striken minutes. That experience has brought me back to this poem, re-living it, this time as the mum. Continue reading “The night after my mother died” →
May my work be the way
May it be my worship
May it be the growing of my heart and the connecting of my soul Continue reading “May my work…” →