Anyone else over 50 find it takes considerable effort to answer this one? A grinding of gears and a cranking look round at the two days of domesticity and idleness peppered by parental duties. “Pretty quiet. Nice, though,” does the job. I suppose no one is really that interested in anyone’s weekend until the answer […]
Why I love getting the sleeper
My favourite way to travel to London is by sleeper train. It gives me a sense of how Harry Potter felt when he pushed his trunk and owl-laden trolley into the other world of platform 9 3/4. Instead of being pursued by a vast bearded man on an enchanted motorbike though, I just need […]
A Belfast weekend in pictures
I love staying in hotels because someone else clears up while your own house doesn’t get any dirtier. Everyone else loves them for the surprise cake. The Europa was fab – even posting us the clothes one of the boys left behind. You can just see the H&W gantry cranes over Boy Two’s shoulder. […]
A fine bed
A poem inspired by Fionaoutdoors and her adventure in the furniture shop. A fine bed It will last 20 years, they said. This bed. Like a galleon, strong enough to sail through your stormy nights, safely to the dawns. The wood got ready in forests. Sprouting and branching while you were still rolling through the […]
Things I’ve learned from my first festival camping trip
I’ve never seen Star Wars either – not properly all the way through. But years after most people have gone through the rite of passage of a pilgrimage to Glastonbury or wallowed in the mud of T in the Park, I made it to my first festival – Kendal Calling 2016. Here’s what I learned: […]