Sun and showers and sun showers, school runs snaking in and out between parked cars, windows down, temperatures up, singing voices raised, tempers frayed. June is everywhere and we are exhausted. It's time to wind down towards summer holidays, but at this time of year, it always feels like it's ramping up instead. Not the homework, ...
I need to make a confession. I hate driving. I avoid driving beyond my local comfort zone if at all possible. And I never, ever (deliberately) drive on motorways. On a number of occasions in the last few years, I've decided that I need to be brave, and I've made journeys to places far, far ...
This time two years ago, I said goodbye to my IFSC office for good, and set out to give freelancing a go for six months. At that point I would decide if it was working or not - or if I'd have to dust off the CV and try to get back into financial services. In ...
Once upon a time, back in September, it all seemed very difficult. Not seriously difficult - just everyday stuff. Struggling with three in school for the first time. Struggling with three lunches and three lots of homework and three tired kids. Struggling with a little boy who likes to talk a lot and listen only a ...
I promised myself (not just an in-the-air promise – an actual written down promise) that the next time I had a lull, I’d take a morning for myself. And here I am – almost all current deadlines met, book edits on the way but not here yet – doing just that. I’m getting my hair ...
As I sit listening to the wind howling around the eaves and the rain spattering on the glass, I'm wondering about the hardy souls who'll brave a night out, and I'm secretly glad of the child-spun tether that keeps me home tonight. And then I remember another St Patrick's Day back in the 90s - working in Fritzpatrick's ...
Can you chart your life in music? (Geddit?) That's what Nicola from Simply Homemade asked and I kept thinking about it falling asleep every night, so now I've written it down. There's no way to fit in all the songs that punctuated childhood, teen discos, college years, and moving in with a boy, but here are some ...
What are you reading, listening to, watching, eating, drinking, looking forward to, worrying about . . ? That's the question Maud from Awfully Chipper asked herself - then asked everyone else - a snapshot of what's going on right now. So here's mine: Reading I'm reading and really enjoying Distress Signals by Irish writer Catherine Ryan Howard ...
One Friday morning last autumn, sitting in a coffee shop, I finished tweaking the first three chapters of a book, attached them to an email, and hit send before I could chicken out. It felt good. Well, for at least thirty seconds until I realised I'd sent it without checking for typos. The next big dilemma was whether or not to ...
It's 11.25pm on Thursday night and I've just spent five minutes scrolling through Facebook. Now I'm anxious because that's five minutes that I didn't spend doing something I should be doing, like editing the article that's due tomorrow or editing the book that's due next week. One part of me - a tiny voice - ...