not just for leaplings

Although it’s not a holiday, Leap Day is one of my favourite days of the year. Call it scarcity. Point your accusatory finger at me and remind me that it’s just another day of drudgery…nothing to get excited about. Go ahead. You won’t temper my exuberance. It’s not that easy to do so anyway. First… Continue reading not just for leaplings

awake in the night chatting to bed-fellows

One of my favourite topics is sleep, but not only because I love sleeping so much. I have such a complicated relationship with sleep, and I’m not sure exactly how to go about explaining it. Some of my earliest memories are of desperately fighting for a later bedtime. My imagination led me to the certainty… Continue reading awake in the night chatting to bed-fellows

keep treading water

No idea what the source of this story is. It sounds like a real scientific experiment, but I heard it as part of a theatre piece. Not that that necessarily makes it untrue or unreliable. Just want it to be clear that this hasn’t been thoroughly researched. Certainly not by me. So they put a… Continue reading keep treading water

deceiving the one closest to you

Since last week’s focus on deception, I’ve been thinking about something my grandmother used to say. I’m not good at direct quotes, but the idea was: Before you can lie to somebody else, you often have to lie to yourself. As a child, I tried desperately to prove this false. Repeatedly. I could tell my… Continue reading deceiving the one closest to you

Duckie the quintessential sneaky fucker

This probably isn’t the best way to start out my addition to Sneaky Fucker Week, but it’s all I’ve got. The thing is…I’ve tried explaining this topic to a few people in my daily life and it’s been mostly met with complete incomprehension. I think it’s partially because it’s about the animal kingdom, and so… Continue reading Duckie the quintessential sneaky fucker

soft as mother hard as father

How does one even begin to write about Terrence Malick‘s The Tree of Life? When it first came out, critics were clear that this wasn’t your average film. I think I remember one review I read said something like love it or hate it, you won’t forget this work. It was called many things and… Continue reading soft as mother hard as father

wilful understanding

My brother and his wife had a daughter, and she was easy. Slept through the night. Did what she was told. Thrived on order. If it was bedtime, she happily went off to bed. No problem. So when it came time to have another kid, they had delusions of another bundle of joy. It didn’t… Continue reading wilful understanding

Patriot Jimmy

How about a topical blogpost? About what’s going on the news? In the world? Under normal circumstances, I’d never mention American Football. Never much liked it. The longer I live far away, the less interesting it is to me. But expats make friends they might avoid under other circumstances. So, I’m actually going to use… Continue reading Patriot Jimmy