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Notes while walking
I wave my partner off on the train. Half my heart making its way across the peninsula; the uncertain hope your loved one will return home. If I had a hanky, I would wave it. I am unsure in this city that may be home, or not. Then a tug – a reminder to walk, […]
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Recent Reads: The Mermaid of Black Conch
The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey. Roffey offers an intriguing and moving mix of fable and razor-sharp narrative set around the story of Aycayia, a cursed mermaid who is sung to the surface near a tiny Caribbean island by an unsuspecting fisherman, and promptly caught. Roffey’s prose throws out any preconceptions we may […]
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Armchair Travel: Lecco, Italy #2
At the Lido A swan circles in close patrolling the lido steps. A white haired Italian lady arrives early shaking her towel and announcing her desire to ‘take the sun’ today. There are couples who come only for a quick photo. One that turns into takes and re-takes smiling only when they push the button. […]
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Armchair Travel: Lecco, Italy
This is the first post in a series called Armchair Travel. It’s not a travel guide or a list of ‘must do’ things; it is simply the photos I took interspersed with the notes that I wrote in my notebook. By the Lakeside: “I am at the lakeside watching the clouds rise and roll over […]
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Notes from a Pandemic: Uncertainty
I’m feeling uncertain today about a lot of things, inner and outer. Whether to go further inwards into books, meditation, yoga and writing or to engage and ‘stay outside’ with video calls,social media and news. The instinct goes towards both; swinging wildly back and fore; the desire to sleep a lot or the anxious ceiling […]
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Notes from a Pandemic: Outside
Going out. I’m going to leave the flat for the first time in three weeks. I can’t believe it has been that long; between working online, checking in with loved ones, reading the news, reacting to the news and sleeping a lot it has all gone by in a surreal, sometimes peaceful often anxious whirl. […]
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Notes from a Pandemic: The City
Birds. I heard birds in the city centre for the first time as I woke on day two of the quarantine here. Not just the odd caw that we hear off our balcony when the pigeons are preparing for the day or coming home to roost on the abandoned building opposite, but a full symphony […]
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Notes from a Pandemic: The Beginning
It’s day 7 of the national ‘lockdown’ here in Andalucía, Spain. Life changed overnight as the rise in cases of the Covid-19 virus caused the government to act quickly and announce legislation for new national measures to protect citizens and residents. Even typing that sentence feels surreal. I’ve lived in Andalucía for nearly seven years […]
Notes on writing, creating and living 