For one of my College course I had to read “Citizen” by Claudia Rankine. I’m ashamed to say I had never heard of either before last week but I am now 100% convinced this is a seminal book that should be compulsory reading in all schools. It was one of those books that leaves you …
Another day another book, because, why not… A friend and I have set up a bookclub, a small affair, it’s only 8 of us, all with grown up children to various degrees, different level of interest in books and what I find most fascinating… none of us really knows each other much. Yes, we have …
Something totally new for me. Lately I’ve been exploring – because shamefully it does feel like a world away from me – hip hop music and culture. Fascinating. I had always dismissed it but I guess I finally learned that it’s stupid to dismiss something without knowing anything about it… so… This song … I’m …
Let’s talk about something frivolous. I’ve done a lot of reading lately for College. Heavy stuff… actually ‘heavy’ is the wrong word… it was more like eye opening reading and what I saw wasn’t pretty… and I’ll have to think about it a little more before starting a conversation on this platform. In the meantime, …
How’s your day going? I’ve just been told our house needs a new roof. It’s going that well. I’ve just been in the attic and saw mould and condensation and the reason why there’s water pouring from the bathroom ceiling. That well… It’s going so well I’ve just had to rescue baby clothes I had kept …
“Out Stealing Horses” by Per Petterson Strictly speaking this book was first published in 2005… but, when searching for a book from 2006, I made a rookie mistake and took note the paperback edition publishing date. I apologise. Having said that I’m sticking by this book/year because I loved it and it deserves to be …
Mary Oliver died yesterday. I didn’t think I liked poetry before I ‘met’ her. Her poems changed all that, and will always be in her debt, so today instead of a music video you can listen to my favourite poem read by my favourite poet… And one more…. When Death Comes by Mary Oliver When …
Still in the middle of exam week. The boys are ratty, tired, fed up AND teenagers… there’s only one way to loosen them up and obtain a vaguely friendly grunt out of them: food. Food with chocolate. Enter the super quick and super delicious ‘rocky road crunch bars’ from Nigella Lawson’s book Nigella Express. (or …
In my quest for ‘less waste’ I made myself try another everyday product in a different format, conscious that sometimes we get stuck in our ways and assume – (makes an ‘ass’ of ‘u’ and ‘me’… they boys love it when I say that… not) – that how it should be, full stop. It’s so …
‘A conscious Englishman’ by Margaret Keeping This blog used to be about making stuff… now it seems to have transformed itself into a more of a reading review… oh well, such is life, eh? This was the first finish of this year. A gentle, tender, soft book about the last years of the English poet …
while you're ahead... 