Such excitement: last weekend we got on an inter-city train and went to Birmingham, travelling 106 miles from home! That’s the furthest we’ve been in nearly a year. We stayed in a hotel for the first time since last March and I was feeling both excited and nervous about the whole thing. It had been…
Growing older by stealth
It has struck me recently that age creeps up on you without your knowledge and certainly without your permission. In fact, I have just increased the magnification of this page by 10% because it was all looking a bit impressionistic. Ten per cent here, ten per cent there and before you know it you’re looking…
Hay days
The good news is that the Hay Literary Festival has just started, but the not-such-good news is that it’s online for the second year in a row. Online has many advantages – think of all the people who can now watch the events if they choose, while before it was limited to those who could…
Save me from the news
We have a newspaper delivered every day. I know, how quaint! I love getting the paper, but I have only limited interest in the news. Nearly all of it is bad and I find politics boring and too slow-moving to hold my attention for long. Harold Wilson, the British Prime Minister, is credited with the…
Misleading my readers
I know it’s hard to believe, but I have, in the past, been accused of inaccuracy. I prefer to think of it as artistic licence, but there has even been mention of suing me under the Trade Descriptions Act. I think it was a joke. I am forced to admit, however, that you would find…
Is gratitude the answer to everything?
Sometimes I feel like I’m reading the same article over and over again. I’m sure you know the one – it’s written by an expert and gives advice on how to solve one of the many health problems we all face. It doesn’t seem to matter whether it’s guidance on how to live longer, protect…
The impossible dream
I don’t know if you’ve seen the video of the tap-dancing physiotherapist and his elderly patient, but it’s rather lovely. The young man, who is helping his patient recover from a hip operation, learned that she had always been a dancer and decided to incorporate tap dancing into her rehabilitation. She has taught him a…
Journey round my bookshelves
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…
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…