Look, what can I say – this is the weird life of a woman: one moment I am ranting about the patriarchy and the next I am giving you a recipe for poached pears. But what a recipe! I love poached pears so much but have never managed to re-create them at home until now. This is just wonderful, I… View Post
I met a woman today who has children of 9 and 7 and she described to me how one child will go back to school in September but only until 2pm and the other one until 2.20pm. She laughed when I said that the school needs to consider the mothers’ domestic and professional workload. “Ha! That school is not run… View Post
Alas, it’s not a question of repeating my no-one cares about us rant in a newspaper; a rant from me about what happened to mothers over the last four months isn’t especially newspaper-worthy (thank god for the internet! Sometimes). But what has to happen next, I think, is that if it looks like schools will close their doors again, I… View Post
I read something in The Economist last night that I want to share with you. The Economist has always been very hawkish in its campaign for schools to re-open more promptly than they did and they carry a strongly-worded leader on the subject this week. (I use the term “re-open” relating to schools advisedly, by the way I understand that… View Post
I tell you what, though – coronavirus will certainly get me out of my dubious habit of “having a look round the shops”. Every three weeks or so I will get on the bus and go into town and have a poke about and see what’s there. Shops are so beautiful these days – sometimes it’s almost like going into… View Post
There I was, crabbing at low tide like an idiot, at Blakeney Point in Norfolk, feeling like a bit of a townie. We had caught nothing and Kitty was glaring at me like it was specifically my fault. Particularly as the family next to us was yanking crab after crab out of the water like… like… I don’t know… fishermen…. View Post
“Staycation” is a bit dismissive, isn’t it? Going to any beach at all, anywhere (unless you already live by the sea) right now is an unimaginable luxury. It might as well be Sardinia for how excited I am about it. With the added frisson of not having to go through an airport or get on a plane. But to enjoy… View Post
The new brand NRBY very kindly sent me last year a pair of their luxe joggers to say thank you for me mentioning them in a piece in the paper (the gift came after the fact, I ought to point out). They had underestimated the size of my arse and they were a little tight, and I thought anyway they… View Post
I am adrift at the moment. My children have gone back to school, which is fabulous for absolutely everyone concerned, but having hollowed out my life completely in order to accommodate them, it’s hard to fill that vacuum with things again. Especially as they will be bounding back any minute now for the summer holidays. But the fact remains, I… View Post