Comments Off on I dreamed of oatcakes

I dreamed of oatcakes

I don’t want to get up. I need to pee but it’s too cold. The issue is pressing but a decision is not yet a necessity. The question is how long have I been here? If I know I can estimate how long I have left to decide, when time becomes of the essence you […] Read More →
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The Schedule

As the years have passed less planning is needed. Timing remains crucial, but almost automatic after so much practice. Things just fall into place. In early October the catalogues arrive and I begin to make my choices. In these digital days I may be the only person left alive who buys from catalogues. I’ve kept […] Read More →
Comments Off on On Mount Verzignis, Italy

On Mount Verzignis, Italy

I forget for a while and then remember. There is bear here. I remember yet still I walk. The chances of meeting a bear are remote. The raise of a paw and a smoker’s ciao. Long as it doesn’t chow down on me I’m happy. I’m too slick with sweat in any case, I’d slip […] Read More →
Comments Off on The Fairy Thieves of Schiehallion

The Fairy Thieves of Schiehallion

We hadn’t been hiking for a while. We chose Schiehallion, the ‘fairy hill’. It had been a while since I’d seen them. My first time here the fairies stole our water bottles. We found out half-way up, the hottest day of the year and the swines had hidden them in the boot of the car. Their laughter […] Read More →
Comments Off on Fun in the Sun

Fun in the Sun

Fun in the sun last night. Or not quite in the sun. More outside the sun, in a hot library. Andrew Bayliss, erstwhile head of Carterton Library (close to my home village) and promoter of all things local and literary booked me in for an event. And what a good turn out, given the beautiful […] Read More →
Comments Off on Can’t Trump Paw Patrol

Can’t Trump Paw Patrol

I’d rather watch Paw Patrol than the news. This pleases my daughter. I know that some parents choose to talk about world affairs with young children. But I’ll let her watch the cute pups for now, she’ll see the rabid dogs soon enough. And I get to sing along with the theme tune as I […] Read More →
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Slip Road

In the car. Trying to get off the slip road. The drivers see me, don’t let me out. They’re drinking from portable mugs, home-barista coffee. I raise my toddler’s pink sippy cup, mouth asshole as they pass. Someone will be on the phone to the cops, on their way to remove the deviant with the […] Read More →
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Kindness among the Misericordia

Some start to a holiday… Blue light of the Italian emergency hospital. Misericordia. Is that the name of the place or a description? Misery record. On-call paramedics in the midnight dark. Flare of a lighter and the orange tip of a cigarette. They consider me carefully as I pull up my trouser leg to reveal […] Read More →
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Press and Journal gets A Private Haunting

Just as I was preparing to step on a plane to Italy and meander all author-like, interesting and improbably sweaty around the streets of Florence and the piazzas of Siena, the good people at The Press and Journal, Scotland’s oldest daily newspaper, ran an extract from A Private Haunting in their Saturday magazine. I may be an Arab and […] Read More →