For me, it isn’t about whether Scotland is better off independent. The haze on a blue-grey day where mountains meet water will still catch my heart. Heather will still be purple in late summer, and men will still pretend to know more than they do about whisky. And that’s just fine. What fills me with […]
Self isolation: Day one, things I’ve learned
It’s funny how the significant moments happen without fanfare, rather than to the big hulloo you think they deserve. Working from home this lunchtime when Boy Two came in from school looking clammy and pale. He flopped onto the spare bed and said: “Urgh.” He was shivery and warm, achy, coughing and tired. Oh, shit. […]
Scottish summertime health warning
School’s out. The sun’s out. The sky is blue. Birds are singing. Scotland’s tabloid journalists are rushing to tell us which exotic place it’s hotter than. (I just asked the Panther and it’s Morocco apparently. The streets are athrong with citizens enjoying the warm – like being on holiday, only you have to go to […]
Things we learned from a brief trip to Aviemore
The weekend before last saw Boy Three and I off on a micro adventure and it was educational. Time is not a fixed thing. Once you start thinking about time as a linear, measurable thing, that’s when the trouble starts. You think it’s all neatly split up into seconds, days and minutes. Then, suddenly, you […]
Women’s football: balls to the sexists
A late submission to football chat… I first decided football wasn’t for me sometime in the late 1980s when, with a Dons-supporting boyfriend at Pittodre, the opposition substituted a black player. The racism shocked and sickened me. That these ordinary folk in the stand beside me had brought a banana with them to express their […]