NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE PERSON WHO CUTS YOUR HAIR.

Throughout life I have maintained strictly monogamous relationships with those persons permitted direct scissor-access to my bonce.  It started from birth. As soon as my wispy white-blonde curls were long enough for a teeny trim, my Dad, being good at everything, and naturally nifty with the shears, took on the mantle of chief coiffeur in...

Get that muck off your face.

GRWM As I ease a little reluctantly into my dotage, I’m glad to say, the magical powers of makeup are becoming less of an obsession. This is just another liberating and strangely exhilarating development of mid-life. I sometimes even venture out in public these days with a completely natural face. I know, right? Zero artificial...

Fate Accompli

He was named Perky, it suited him perfectly, and I fell in love immediately (a weakness of mine, particularly where ginger cats are concerned) A tip-off from our neighbourhood crazy cat lady had led me to the tiny outpost of Nunburnholme, to find him. When we met he had belonged to an elderly lady and...

Magic Numbers

A small and seemingly insignificant revelation just cheered me right up. I stepped on someone else’s bathroom scales. In an instant, my life was less of a calorific shit-sandwich than it was just moments before. As a person of sound mind -occasional bouts of lunacy notwithstanding, I am fully aware of the notion that not...

Freefall.

Nothing can prepare you for the shocking moment of crystalline clarity at the tipping point, leaning out into the void and beginning a free fall at 10,000 ft. Despite my early training as a Brownie Guide, and a life-long propensity to embark on spontaneous and not always advisable ventures, ‘preparedness’ is a skill that continues...

‘I AM HALF SICK OF SHADOWS…‘

I wrote a few years ago (All That Glitters) about the Chinese lacquer wedding baskets that have been part of the furniture in my parents house, both in KL and the UK, for as long as I can remember. I wrote of the secret treasures to be found within their layered tiers, principally the beads...

SLOW DOWN

In December 2020 I wrote about the benefits of getting out of my ‘comfort zone’ in a blog that was perhaps a subconscious preparation for what was to follow. In it I extolled the virtues of all sorts of peculiar therapeutic practices that are difficult, painful or scary, my favourite being cold water immersion in...

Unstuffing

So, I’m going through some stuff at the moment. Big stuff, niggly little stuffs, life-changing stuff and stuff of nightmares. There’s also some amazingly wonderful stuff too. Which, though marvellous, unexpected and joyous, adds to the general weight of stuff. All that stuffing can get to feeling quite uncomfortable, like in the story of Fred...

HACKED OFF

Get a load of ME! I am self-aware enough to recognise that much of my existence these days, particularly in this post pandemic world of physical isolation from other hoomans, is lived increasingly through the demon conduits of social media platforms. Like everyone else, I sat through The Social Dilemma aghast, appalled and sickened, only...

COMFORT ZONE

Writing from my cozy spot on the big blue sofa by the flickering fire while soft furry animals snooze like farting scatter cushions across the floor, a wilting Christmas tree beams a warm twinkling aura that settles on the room like gold dust, and I muse on some of life’s less comfortable experiences. I’m not...