We abuse our planet like a toddler rampaging through its mother’s home, oblivious and unwilling to relent upon its mindless pleasure. This is not new. Since our dawn we have been a family fuelled by greed and competition… only now these notions hold global consequence; hunting one too many dodos has become the degradation of the foundations of planetary health, unfortunately invisible to the biggest culprits - me and you.
Read MoreThe winter sun is streaming through the window, I sit with my coffee and edit the photographs I took at last weekends’ monthly drag show. Each photograph I bring up on the screen is a reminder of the wonderful people that I get to work with, hang out with and call my friends. It’s a reminder of how far I have come
Read MoreA friend once told me she doesn’t want to go to any group gatherings anymore ‘if a bunch of motherfuckers become mathematicians when the bill comes’ … and that got me thinking.
Read MoreIt is too easy in these modern times to cruise the internet’s infinite avenues of information; to scroll, and tap, and swipe; to fall victim to endless rabbit holes that produce more questions than answers: what to watch? What to read? What podcast to listen to?
Read MoreMany of my friends have become vegetarian or vegan recently, often for environmental reasons. “We watched the new BBC documentary on how bad meat is for the environment” is a phrase I’ve heard many times. Personally, I am not convinced
Read MoreIn the World After Corona - that glimmering, nebulous term, like a utopia - having been forced to converse via webcam rather than in bars and restaurants, I predict that the allure of the web will not be as strong. Sight will no longer be filtered through pixels. To see for oneself a mountain, to climb and taste sweat and smell soil and rain and earth and feel alive will be a stronger drug.
Read MoreIn 2020 we have our close friends and family in our pockets 24/7, always available to chat to on Whatsapp or check in with on Facebook or Instagram, but living on a street where you know your neighbours by name and family are close enough to swing by unannounced for a cuppa is not the common state any more.
Read MoreSince turning 40, which seems *old enough* I’ve found myself at a lot of parties. I’m sometimes there to photograph which gives me purpose and reason. But sometimes I just go for the craic. A dance, a chat, a catch up, a nose, a chance to observe the youthful avante garde in all their colourful and loud glory.
Read MoreHoping with hope, with or without squinched up eyes, doubles up the optimism power I think; it’s a prayer, without a church, but with a congregation. I hope with hope for a better world. It’s a massive and unwieldy hope, and a daunting one.
Read MoreSometimes life does feel like you’re Samwise Gamgee struggling up Mount Doom with Frodo bitching in your ear and Gollum trying to murder you. Mondays can be that grim.
Read MoreI don’t know about you, but I tend to ignore the news once it starts to panic about flooding/cold weather/train strikes (or insert other disaster here). And generally nothing happens when I do. But today, I went out to the supermarket, and found it nearly empty.
Read MoreIt’s incredible to see the deconstruction of the stigma around mental health; but it’s important to remember it is a double edged sword and a topic that still seems to focus on anxiety and depression, leaving other illnesses still very much in the dark.
Read MoreIn 2013, we met an awesome woman, C, who was already helping another couple to become parents. And when she had helped them by carrying their daughter, she offered to help us. We had become good friends, and bonded over our love of food, particularly curries.
Read MoreI spent 11 months in Australia and a month travelling home (via various countries). During that time I heard the term ‘opportunity of a lifetime’ frequently. I heard it from other backpackers, from people I met, from people at home. I never liked the phrase.
Read MoreNastiness is embedded into the world in one form or another and we’ve all been a part of it. Whether that be giving, receiving, contributing or even just watching it happen. Shamefully, I remember when I was young, finding it extremely hard to give people compliments. I remember actually feeling and thinking ‘I don’t want to compliment that person’.
Read MoreThis year I’m going to Glastonbury. I am part of the chosen few that secured a ticket. I should be overjoyed, which I am, but for some reason I keep thinking of the fact that I’ll be 23 when Taylor Swift tells me how great it was to be ’22’.
Read More‘When mentioned Bermuda is always attributed to the mysterious part of the sea that’s responsible for ship and air plane disappearances.’ But there’s so much more to Bermuda than that… and what's so interesting is how the location has shaped the residential buildings. An incredibly well informed and sophisticated piece by Carrie Cross.
Read More“OK, so I have a really scary question to ask you”. Holding my breath, my dignity and my stomach muscles firmly in place, I looked at the man I’d been friends with for the last 20 years.
Read MoreA brown skirt suit, Jesus, what was I thinking? I thought borrowing something smartish from my big sister would help, and maybe it did, but it absolutely wasn’t me! I felt like a total fraud. I sat on the coach at Maidenhead bus station thinking it was the start of the rest of my life! That 11 quid fare was my ticket to freedom! It was the summer of 1989.
Read MoreCandle lit table in an Italian restaurant. The soft glow of the flame creates dappled shadows around our wine glasses - mine, half empty, his, near gone. His hand slowly glides across the table cloth, gently falling on top of my palm. He looks up at me, burning curiosity in his cool eyes, “so”, he says, “tell me about your family?”
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