A few weeks ago I wrote about Womankind magazine and the editor’s vision of a readership that wanted to ‘look outward, not inward’. I was in need of a bit of that. Just when we thought the sun might return, there were unreasonable flurries of snow across grey Glasgow. All my waking hours were structured […]
In Praise of Having a Rest
Sometime in the dark midwinter I was scrubbing at a blue-black stain on my living room carpet for ten minutes before I realised it was actually a shadow. I wanted to cry. It was past my bed-time and my nervous system was crackling with stress. I’d had about eight cups of coffee since 7am that […]
‘Look Outwards, Not Inwards’ – Finally, a Womens’ Magazine For the Real World
Reading, eating, sleeping: are these not the very foundations of wellbeing? Most else, I could take or leave (exercising is only for emergencies; handsome lovers and disco dancing and holidays in sunny places are the extras we get if we’re lucky and/or persistent). As a kid I avidly read cereal boxes at the breakfast table […]
10 Love Stories for Valentines Day
Wandering around the shops today I saw a man walking very fast, carrying a bunch of red roses. Ah, Schmalentine’s Day. Whenever I was single on Valentine’s Day I used it as an excuse to treat myself to all kinds of treasure – baskets of cats wearing bow-ties, a cinema date for one with an […]
A Christmas Survival Guide (for Tired Busy People)
So this is Christmas, the time of year for festooning. Festooning things like mantelpieces and best friends and pets. Festooning with tinsel and fairy lights, cake crumbs and mulled wine stains. Tis also the season for stress and forgetfulness. No matter how dutifully I write things in my calendar, by the first week of December […]
This is What Happens When You Stop Drinking
If you look for it, there is a deluge of confessional articles on the internet about the dark tarnished glamour of alcoholism. You know – the good bit? The bit before it all falls apart, the bit about being Kate Moss and a rock star and not caring. Euphoric, dazed, crashing headlong into the end. […]
Secret Style Icon No.23: Albert Einstein
I’ve become infatuated with a theoretical physicist. I guess it’s the sort of thing that happens, in the end days of capitalism, as ice bergs melt and we continue to deny that climate change is happening and meanwhile put all our energy and resources into killing each other in much faster ways. I’ve been searching for words […]
When Will There Be Good News
Back in January I wrote a post about new year feelings and how terrible 2015 had been. It was a year of disasters that trundled interminably onward, with bees dying, icebergs melting, and people drowning in the Mediterranean while governments gathered, nauseatingly late, to squabble over whether or not to save them. Everything was ugly […]
The Friday Happy List 13th May 2016
I haven’t written anything for a little while because I’ve been moving house, which was really exciting, and then kind of stressful, and then overwhelming, and then I just melted. Being an adult is hard, and I hate it. I was vaguely aware, while travelling with rucksacks of books on trains, or drifting with a […]
On Rejection, Failure, Holding your Nerve, and Eating a Whole Baked Camembert
When I’m not painstakingly crafting sub-standard jokes or stealing something funny I heard someone say one time a while ago, and then wrapping it all up into a bundle so I can post it on this blog with a title that mentions cheese somehow – I spend my other spare time writing fiction. Ok, I […]
Amy Jardine 