Humans baffle me. They act in illogical ways, often against their own self interest. For instance, it makes no sense than someone would speed and drive erratically, literally risking their life and the lives of others to save a few seconds, but I see it every time I’m on the motorway. I’ve written about my…
Read More
Last year, I wrote about my attempts to disentangle myself from capitalism and listed a few things I found helpful. It’s an ongoing project, and I have more tips to share. As I stated in my previous blog post, I am coming at this from a position of privilege. I have no mortgage, no debts,…
Read More
Solidarity with the peaceful protestors who were arrested for the crime of holding an opinion in London this morning. Throwing a tax-payer-funded party for a billionaire while people go hungry and public services collapse is beyond disgusting. Those peacefully carrying ‘Not My King’ placards are not criminals.
Read MoreYesterday, a car I didn’t recognise parked across the street from my house. I didn’t see it arrive, but I looked out the window as soon as I heard a loud bang and a man screaming. I can only assume he’d slammed his car door before yelling and gesticulating at a young woman who had…
Read More
At the end of last summer, we made the decision to no longer keep hens as we just couldn’t offer them the quality of life they deserved. Mandatory lockdowns due to bird flu were becoming more frequent and lasting longer, and the hens were confined to a run for months at a time. We’d always…
Read More
It occurred to me this morning that I’d not shared the news about our kitten Toby. He came to live with us just after new year, and we are all out of our minds with his cuteness and sweetness. He’s half British shorthair and half ragdoll.
Read More
My mama raised a quitter. If she were still alive, she’d probably be horrified at my admission, but I’m not ashamed. Sticking with a bad situation just to be sticking with it is stupid. It’s a trick of capitalism: the powers that be don’t want people cutting and running at the first sign of unhappiness,…
Read More
This is a scary post to write. I’m about to admit to the sorts of things people don’t discuss in polite company, and I’m nothing if not polite. It’s how I mask, but that’s not what I want to write about today. Today I want to tell you about my experience with menopause. Don’t worry,…
Read More
A couple of days after Christmas, I came down with flu. I wasn’t sure it actually was flu at first, but several negative covid tests and an illness that just wouldn’t shift convinced me this was the case. I thought I was on the mend until last Tuesday evening when I began to cough up…
Read More
Glennis Toole was the coolest person I’d ever met. As I was seven years old at the time, I hadn’t really considered other people ‘cool’ or ‘uncool’, but I was instantly smitten with her. She and her family had moved into a house on our street and as there weren’t many kids in our neighbourhood…
Read More
I vividly remember ringing in 2016 with my first view of the Northern Lights. I’d been chasing them for years and was beyond excited to finally see them. I just knew it was a good omen and that there were great things in store for us all. Then beloved celebrities started dying, the UK voted…
Read More
Good riddance to 2022. It was hard on just about everyone, and it was cruel to us until the very end with the death of a much-loved pet and more than one horrible diagnosis for a family member. But it’s nearly over and I won’t dwell. Instead I’ll look back on the things I accomplished.…
Read More
It’s not until you get away from dysfunction that you realise how bad it was. I wouldn’t say I was addicted to Twitter, but I used it a lot. In the beginning, it was a bit of fun, marvelling at how amusing some people could be with just a few words. Then came the commiserations.…
Read More
The signs were there from the beginning; repetitive behaviours, preferring my own company, trouble making friends, and doing well in school despite hating the rigidity of it all. Later came my bafflement at the social ease of my peers, my struggling to follow arbitrary rules, and my generally feeling like an alien who’d been dropped…
Read More
Over the past few years, I’ve been disentangling myself from capitalism’s insidious grip. It’s not an easy process, and it’s not something I’ll complete within my lifetime, but I still find it’s worth doing. I will preface by saying that I’m approaching this from a place of immense privilege. I’m self-employed and I have no…
Read More
Fig and Pen 