My next door neighbour was burgled last night. This is a major event for the entire street; we are all middle-aged people in a middle class street, in a town which has the lowest crime rate in the South of England. Based on the theory that criminals often return to the scene of the crime […]
Parenting
The hidden cost of children
A friend of mine asked me recently, “so just how much do children cost?” It brought to mind a colleague who, after discovering his girlfriend was unexpectedly pregnant, calculated optimistically that a mere £6 a week was required to sustain this future child. I would love to track him down, some seven or eight years […]
Waiting Room
Day Five,originally uploaded by ~Prescott. You see the same plastic, hard-backed chairs in any other waiting room, but the tension here is palpable, and the atmosphere rarified. The room is full of couples – the occasional same-sex pair, the odd lone female, but mostly couples; holding hands as though this show of solidarity alone is […]
A Vagina Monologue
Since the moment I knew I was pregnant (and technically before that point, but let’s keep this clean) goings-on below the bikini-line have been uppermost in my mind. Following the arrival of my little bundles of fun, I’ve changed more nappies and wiped more boy-bits and girl-bits than I’ve had gin and tonics; and I’ve […]
Flying high
I love flying. I love everything about it; people-watching at the airport, shopping for duty-free, running to the gate in response to the last call for boarding… Once in my seat I trawl through the in-flight literature, tossing aside the safety instructions and devouring the pages of still more duty-free shopping that I have no […]