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i82838
Oct 28, 20181 min read
Fifty Good Years
This is my 85-year-old mother talking to Garry who runs the booze section at her local supermarket. Mum buys all her beer and chardonnay...
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i82838
Oct 28, 20181 min read
Shoehorning
‘That’s a bloody nuff, Diane. Stop taking photos!’ My mother can shoehorn a swearword into almost anything she says.
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i82838
Oct 28, 20181 min read
The Raw Prawn
September 16, 2018 I arrived in New Zealand yesterday and got to my 85-year-old mother’s place at about 8:30 in the evening. Mum hadn’t...
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i82838
Oct 27, 20182 min read
The Explosive Joy of Reading
September 5, 2018 Recently, I was asked to name seven books that meant something to me as a child. This would be virtually impossible for...
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i82838
Oct 27, 20181 min read
The Cake Hole
August 5, 2018 My mother used to drive a boxy Peugeot 404. It had a stick shift on the steering column with indicators on the French side...
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i82838
Oct 27, 20181 min read
Bumper Stickers
August 4, 2018 When I was growing up in New Zealand, golf was not an expensive or elite sport. My mother played it and was an excellent...
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i82838
May 21, 20181 min read
It All Depends on the Tone You Use
May 19, 2018 Today we followed a ‘Yard Sale’ sign to a front garden filled with old tat. The owner, a man in his seventies, lifted the...
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i82838
Mar 26, 20181 min read
The Compliment
March 25, 2018 My dentist just told me that I have the gums of an 18-year-old. Apparently, they’re very tight against the teeth. I walked...
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i82838
Mar 11, 20181 min read
The Bedspread
March 11, 2018 A conversation from three years ago: My then 82-year-old mother was talking to her then 83-year-old sister called Joy....
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i82838
Mar 4, 20181 min read
The Hum of Alien Life
February 23, 2018 Bloody H3N2. Your head hurts. It feels as if your brain has swollen and is rubbing against the inside of your skull....
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i82838
Jan 24, 20181 min read
An Age
January 19, 2018 My mother visited her local clinic yesterday. While she was having a blood test, the nurse casually asked her how old...
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i82838
Dec 11, 20171 min read
The End of Things
December 11, 2017 I woke up in the middle of the night with a very clear awareness of death. It was not frightening. It was an...
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i82838
Nov 26, 20171 min read
The Wrong Party
November 26, 2017 Last night I was entering a side door to a party in a bar above a pub when someone said loudly, ‘She’s a homophobic...
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i82838
Nov 10, 20171 min read
The French
November 10, 2017 The footpaths are quite wide on the boulevards in Paris. I was hurrying along one of these on Wednesday when I noticed...
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i82838
Oct 10, 20171 min read
Writing in the Sand
October 10, 2017 I am getting a new laptop today. A souped-up MacBook Pro. Bells and whistles. Adaptors and software galore. It’s the...
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i82838
Oct 8, 20172 min read
The Sea of Japan
October 8, 2017 A couple of weeks ago I was waiting for a Tube at Kentish Town Station with my brother and nephew. We were standing at...
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i82838
Oct 8, 20172 min read
The Grifter
September 25, 2017 My middle brother used to have a friend called Colin. I knew him as a teenager. He was an odd, furtive boy who walked...
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i82838
Oct 8, 20172 min read
Wet Wipes
September 24, 2017 On the train from Scotland to London yesterday, we had a table next to a young, blond American man. He was 18 and was...
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i82838
Aug 30, 20172 min read
My First Novel
August 30, 2107 Many years ago, I met a woman who described herself as a novelist. ‘I’m a literary writer,’ she told me, setting herself...
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i82838
Aug 15, 20171 min read
Self Possession
August 13, 2017 Yesterday while walking up the hill from St Albans station quietly resenting everyone walking down the hill, I passed a...
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