‘Life and death are the biggest polar opposites there are. I like love and I like hate… I like all those opposites. On and off. Happy and sad. In an artwork I always try to say something and deny it at the same time.’ …and Damien Hirst I’ve never really got Damien Hirst. And I’ve … Continue reading »
Life… Easter Sunday for me means getting up early, going to church and singing my heart out. And then, as is also customary in this country at Easter time, I ate so much roast lamb I thought I might give birth to a sheep. And then I ate sticky toffee pudding and epic numbers of … Continue reading »
It was a warm indian summer, the end of September, and a week before my 28th birthday, when I moved to London. I had a month’s worth of work with a company called Northstar, whose offices were at Kings Cross. I didn’t realise when I was packing up to catch the train, that I would … Continue reading »
If this challenge were a film I think it would end a little like this: The overlooked but kindhearted fellow office worker who I barely speak to/friend’s flatmate/man on the 155 bus/other previously unthought about but ever present male gets up the courage to ask me out. I suddenly realise that this is the man … Continue reading »
Remember this? Last week I saw the photographer who had been with me when I bought those plants again. We were on another shoot, this time in Edinburgh. It felt both ages and no time since we’d been in North Yorkshire, waiting for summer to start and making garden plans. Summer’s well and truly here … Continue reading »
No one I know would choose in all seriousness to be 13 or 14 again. No one. They make cute films about teenagers getting stuck in adults’ bodies (Big, for example, and Thirteen going on Thirty) but the idea of it actually happening is enough to make you lose valuable sleep. Unfortunately, teenagers getting trapped … Continue reading »
For Christmas last year, and before she left for Moldova, B gave me a book called 102 Free Things To Do: Inspiring Ideas for a Better Life. One of the suggestions is to keep a daily diary, where you only write one sentence to sum up the day. I thought this was a great idea, … Continue reading »
In the little town where I’m from, people don’t often leave. But when they do, and they come back to visit, I remember these people having a wonderful air of mystery about them. And the women, they were always unmarried, but super-glamorous. ‘How are they not married?’, we’d marvel. And the older and wiser women … Continue reading »
Lent: short for Lenten, from the Old English lencten which means spring. From *lanngaz, root of the word ‘long’ and *tina-, a root meaning ‘day’, the compound probably refers to the increasing daylight. Tomorrow is the first day of Lent. If the Old English meaning is anything to go by, this means it’s the first … Continue reading »
Well, there was an overwhelming response to the shortlist and the voting was very close, but a winner emerged, by a hair’s breadth, in the form of Cultural Shorthand #1: Blue Peter. Not only did it win the popular vote, but analysis of the stats from the past week demonstrate that this was also the … Continue reading »
