Leaving Time*

E”Excuse me, do you happen to have a pig or a tapir?” I say to the manager of the shop.  I’m at the place where I purchased Mum’s beaded dinosaur last week, looking for a present for Seb’s Mum. “We’ve got a sheep,” she says, standing up, moving round the front of her desk, walking over […]

The Nine Tailors*

“What are your measurements, Tanya?” Seb says as he’s packing his huge rucksack this morning.  “Is it OK if I leave this shirt here?” “Of course,” I say, taking the shirt from him.  It’s my favourite one: big blue and grey checks and it feels soft.  Am pleased that it will be here so I […]

Trouble Is My Business*

Painventory 1.  Cramp in left leg – down the side and around the knee, but on the inside – the inner knee.  No idea how/ why this has happened. 2.  Blocked nose: new allergy that am going to see a specialist about in three weeks, by which time it will probably have killed me.  Although […]

The Charmed Bracelet*

The weekend guests are gone, leaving nothing but several bags of recycling – we munched our way through an impressive amount of food it seems – and a trail of their belongings: a book about running (MadFatRunner) and a grey sweater and blue shirt (Seb). Am missing both of them so much already.  Have just had a little […]

The Cat Who Saw Stars*

Waking up with a start, I fumble for my watch.  5.15am.  Ah, the joy of hot flushes.  Sipping from my water bottle, wiping my sweat-drenched face with the towel that now lives on the floor next to my bed, I put on my Body Scan CD. After listening to it twice, I’m still awake.  No […]

Perfect Day For A Murder*

1.  Start reading A Book.  Not some airport novel to get-my-reading-muscles-working.  No.  A proper book: The Tories: Conservatives And The Nation State 1922 – 1997 by Alan Clark.  And it’s gripping. Already, Bonar Law has complained of feeling ‘mouldy’ and succumbed to oesophageal cancer.  Am feeling mouldy too.  Going to use this one: it’s great. […]