I’d spent the last few months convincing myself to go away on my own; a first solo holiday of sorts, taking my bike, tent and now fairly nervous self away first to France, then Belgium, then home again via France. Now, as I plod around the kitchen with a bowl of porridge in one hand and a heart rate monitor in the other, it’s actually happening.
Read MoreAccessibility.
Almost everyone will know that word and will know what accessibility, also known as gainful access, means.
But not many people have had to realise just how incredibly difficult and draining it often is to actually access accessibility.
Read MoreHowever fierce the future summer heatwaves are; however torrential the winter storms, you’ll know you did everything you could to make it better. You’ll be able to tell your children and grandchildren you made a difference. You’ll know you tried. And, that’s got to be better than the alternative, right?
Read MoreThere has been an absurd number of videos, posts and comments heavily debating whether disabled people, specifically wheelchair users, should be allowed to use buses when there are parents using pushchairs and occupying the wheelchair user spaces on said bus.
Read MoreI was scrolling through social media when I came across an advertisement for a service that would send someone to your home to unpack your suitcase after a trip. For a fee, a stranger would arrive at your door, open your luggage, sort your clothes, hang them in the wardrobe, place your toiletries back in the bathroom, and dispose of the suitcase. The service promised to eliminate the post-holiday dread of facing a half-unpacked bag that sits in the corner of the bedroom for days, silently reproaching you.
My first reaction was disbelief. Then amusement. Then something closer to unease.
Read MoreWe've all heard it, judged it and likely heard other people judging it too.
To be fair, I don't particularly want to scoff at someone who is probably just as caught up in the rat race of perfection as the rest of us, but as a human, and more importantly, a writer who understands clickbait, I couldn't not mention Steven Bartlett's name in the title. Such is the modern world.
Read MoreThe climate crisis is often described as an environmental emergency. Yet it is equally a political and emotional condition, shaped by steadfast contradiction. Governments speak fluently about sustainability while the economic systems driving climate action remain tied to extraction, growth, and delay. Scientific knowledge expands at an unprecedented pace, even as ecological conditions continue to decline.
Read MoreI’ve got it all planned. I know when the photographer turns up, where the button-holes need to be sent to, and the colour of the napkins. There’s just one thing left undecided, and suddenly burning a hole in my brain, and that’s this: do I take his last name?
Read MoreI have to admit my reaction to Chalamet’s statement, like everyone else, was “what an insufferable idiot”, but since he has opened a can of worms, why not delve into it?
Read MoreOften, when we’re chasing perfection, it can feel like everything goes wrong at once. One thing breaks, then another. A friend seems a bit distant and then an unexpected phone bill arrives. Before long, we start telling ourselves that everything has gone to shit and it’s all our fault.
Here’s a lesson that came to me while behind the wheel of a car rather than in a self-help book.
Democracy is usually described as something that happens in public. It shows up in parliaments, courtrooms, and polling stations. We measure it in elections, constitutions, and peaceful transfers of power. At its heart, it makes a simple promise: that people can govern themselves. But democracy also has a quieter life. It lives inside us, in the decisions we make, the way we interpret the world, and how we understand our own freedom. It shapes not just governments, but the shape of ourselves.
Read MoreIn recent times, the ‘Skinny Trend’ — a cultural shift towards extreme thinness to give a ‘heroin chic’ look— has taken over the media. In a time where 1 in 4 girls as young as eight are on a diet or actively trying to lose weight and with NHS England stating rates of eating disorders being four times higher in young women than men (20.8% compared to 5.1%) it is time to stop and ask how ‘harmless’ this trend truly is and what the cost is of weight as an aesthetic.
Read MoreWhen I first started planning, I did what most people do now: I opened up my socials and started to get inspired. Within the space of a few weeks, I had a vast folder of ‘must-see’ spots, hidden gems, and maps full of pinned food spots.
Read More“We could also put some Botox above the brow… just to plump that area up.”
“I see you’ve got quite heavy eyelids.”
“And the dimple in your chin, it’s alright now, but as you get older…”
“Salmon sperm ssalmonnnnn spermmmmm ssssalmonnn spermmmmm.’’
I had traded in one insecurity for about five others. Not exactly a fair exchange.
Read MoreTo be clear, this is not a defence of plastic surgery. Convincing women to undergo unnecessary, invasive, and often dangerous procedures in order to conform to a rigid and exclusionary beauty standard does not exist outside of patriarchy- it is produced by it. Plastic surgery is not feminist, and framing it as such would be disingenuous. What I am interested in interrogating instead is this: what does it mean to uphold a rigid hierarchy of beauty while simultaneously stigmatising women who attempt to access it? And what does that contradiction reveal about who beauty is for?
Read MoreThe heartbreak - and strain - of becoming our parents carers. It’s something that isn’t talked about a lot, but what is the right way to look after age family members? Can there even be a right way?
Read MoreI regret getting our dog. *Immediately checks for angry mob with torches and pitchforks*
It’s a truth that feels almost illegal to say out loud, but it is true nonetheless. One that’s probably shared by lots of people, but who also haven’t voiced it because of the accompanying guilt and shame (or fear of the righteous-dog-loving-angry-mob with torches and pitchforks).
Read MoreI asked a group of individuals, all varying in age, gender and location, what is your relationship like with reading? Have you got a good relationship with books, or do you find yourself reaching for your phone more often than not?
Read MoreIf you told me four years ago that me and the chap I was dating would one day go our separate ways, I would have called you all sorts of parental- guidance-required-profanities and wouldn’t have liked you very much.
Yet here I am sitting on the floor of an (albeit rather beautiful) unlived-in rental property, at 35, childless, ringless, partnerless, my whole world upside down and inside out and my very nervous nervous system buzzing a different kind of buzz to when we shared our first kiss underneath a bus shelter 365 days X 4 ago.
Read MoreIt was only when I moved to a big new city at the age of thirty that I began to think consciously about friendship. I remember my first Friday night in my rental flat, sitting on my bed doing endless sudokus for want of evening plans, the city beyond my window alive with the rev of motorbikes and distant sirens. ‘Okay’ I remember thinking. ‘I suppose I ought to go out and… find some… friends?’ The notion was weird. It was as though I’d just learned my hair would no longer grow unless I grimaced and strained.
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