Travellers’ tales are giving me the travel fix I need right now. Six months ago, when there seemed little hope of venturing much further than our own front doorsteps, I couldn’t bear to think about the wider world, so wonderful and yet seemingly crushed by the pandemic. Although many countries are still struggling to contain…
Author: Sheridan
That’s not really what I had in mind
In my imagination I was going to be like Saint Francis of Assisi (minus the beard and shapeless tunic). I bought some bird seed, convinced that all I needed to do was scatter a few handfuls outside every morning to attract a variety of grateful birds into the garden. Eventually they’d come to know and…
Such a perfect day
Recently I have been thinking about how much time I spend lounging on the sofa watching TV. Just by writing that sentence I have outed myself as a person with too much time on her hands. I loved Call My Agent! – that addictive French series about a talent agency in Paris – but I…
The wonder of Italian Nonnas and English Nannas
Italian Nonnas seem to be getting a lot of attention at the moment, in theory for their cooking skills, but I suspect largely for their charm. The Pasta Grannies Instagram account has more than half a million followers and many thousands watch the weekly YouTube videos of these women making pasta the way they’ve always…
The lockdown clear-out that knows no bounds
If I’m not released from my house soon there will be nothing left in it. Everything has been tidied, organised, pared down, rationalised and streamlined to such an extent that I could probably fit the entire contents into a small trunk. I have even caught myself idly wondering if I could put the cat on…
No, I have no plans
Freedom is in the air. People are busy making plans. They’re reserving tables in restaurants, arranging museum visits, reserving hotel rooms and even booking flights. At any other time there would be nothing remarkable about this, but now we live in a different time and there is. I don’t seem to have the will to…
Looking for a new obsession
I have to be honest, I am fretting. We are halfway through the final series of Call My Agent!, the highly entertaining French series about a talent agency in Paris. We have been watching one episode a night for weeks now and I don’t know what I’ll do with myself when it’s finished. Should we…
Emerging into the light
I have been idly wondering if I’ll emerge from lockdown a better person. I’d like to think that I will, but somehow I doubt it. Hardship is supposed to build character, but I have a feeling that when all this is finally over I’ll probably emerge pretty much the same, perhaps a bit podgier. Of…
Burning Questions
The number of things I don’t know is infinite. The list is long and inexhaustible, while the list of things I do know is fairly short – but I’m fine with that. I couldn’t begin to understand quantum physics and I wouldn’t want to acquire a knowledge of dentistry. Although that might have been handy…
A general lowering of standards
As I was dutifully vacuuming and dusting in anticipation of a visit from my mother, I started to think about how our standards have fallen in general over the past year. Well, mine have, anyway. Why bother to clean your house when there’s no one to see it? Why wash your hair when it’s covered…