The Half Term Pressure

I am currently sitting on the sofa.  It is Sunday, and there is no work tomorrow.  Instead there is a week stretching ahead of me in which I must make up for all the time I didn’t have in term time by making sure I’m up to date with work, fitting in all the life…

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Grid Girls: A Philosophical Analysis

As you may know my day job involves, amongst other things, discussing philosophy with teenagers.  One of my Year 13 students commented recently that it must be a wonderful job, sitting around having conversations all day about the great mysteries of the universe, and for the most part, it is.  We’ll ignore the marking for…

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Back Where I Belong

My brother once accused me of being like a salmon. I took it as a compliment, as one does.  Back in the days before I was vegetarian (seventeen years ago, though it gives me palpitations at the thought of my ever-increasing antiquity) I used to enjoy the occasional smoked salmon, and with their leaping about…

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Nine New Year’s Resolutions for Single Parents With No Money

New Year’s Resolutions are a funny thing.  For a start, surely it’s better to turn over a new leaf at a time of year when you are not literally etching the days onto a bleak wall like a prisoner waiting to be released, eking out a cold and miserable existence until the crocuses raise their…

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The Utter Trauma of Taking the Tree Down

Apparently, the Queen leaves her Christmas tree up until February. And I know this because I recently binge watched three royal-themed documentaries back to back on Channel 5.  Why watch The Crown on Netflix when you can have the real deal on Freeview complete with soundbites from a couple of the Daily Mail’s finest royal…

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#SingleMumCooks:The Easiest Dessert in the World

Anybody else still slowly eating their way through huge mountains of Christmas chocolate, cheese and other festive ingredients that don’t get a look in the rest of the year (chestnut pureé, anyone?) No?  Everyone else on a diet of kale, chia seeds and self-hatred?  Oh well, perhaps this recipe isn’t for you. The funny thing…

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Ten Ways to Survive Twixtmas

It was the day before Twixtmas, and all through the house….. Oh hang on, the day before Twixtmas is Christmas Day, and precisely nobody-except, I imagine, those who are profoundly lonely or whose family are a shower of b******s-spends Christmas Day ruminating on the joys of the next day.  After all, we’re all too busy…

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Let The Christmas Panic Commence

It is 5.58am on Christmas Eve and I am awake.  Since I have no other reason to be so at this time, I can only conclude that the Christmas Panic is setting in.  The cold, clammy fear that the roast potatoes won’t be crispy enough, the vegetarian centrepiece won’t be showy enough, and the alcohol…

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A Little “Me” Time

As Piglet grows older, I find myself with more time to spare.  Now that he is more interactive and easier to feed, placate and transport, all of a sudden he is less of a burden to those who would babysit, and my time-my “me” time, so to speak, at least when I am not at…

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The Chair: Part 2

I recently wrote about my abject feminist outrage when a chair I had purchased was delivered, only for the delivery man to comment that as he couldn’t get it up the stairs, I would need my “husband” to take the legs off for me. I was understandably outraged, but the chair remained lying on its…

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