30th October 2011
Like you, I firmly believe that fantasy must lie in reality. The weaving of an extraordinary tale in an extraordinary world must take its cue from the everyday lives and trials of the souls that inhabit this one. Even though characters in fantasy are blessed with certain unusual powers they need their weaknesses in order to make them someone we can identify with. However, I…
25th October 2011
I was at the International Stores yesterday doing my weekly grocery haul. It was like every other grocery haul I’ve ever done, except that I was standing behind this woman waiting for her to move her cart (the aisles in that store are narrow; part of the charm of shopping there is that it is old-fashioned, the owner remembers your…
24th October 2011
A friend’s user picture proudly declared “Skinny girls are for wimps”. I clicked through to take a closer look at it and it showed an image of a beautiful woman, unselfconsciously dressed in what looked like lingerie, and yes, her arms were a little flabby, and she had a bit of a tummy, but she had that look in her…
21st October 2011
Is there anything better than thick cut chips from floury potatoes fried to a beautiful sunny gold and fried eggs with delicious yolk still warm and runny to dip your chips into? I mean, I know there are foodies and gourmands out there who will disagree with me, but think about it. When the chips are down (hur hur) and…
21st October 2011
It takes two to tango. I recently had a phone call from an old friend (we shall call her X) who clearly had something on her mind. After the initial hellos and how-the-hell-are-yous she very quickly moved on to the real reason why she’d called me. She wanted to issue a very formal and very vociferous complaint about her best…
15th October 2011
Grimalkin: king of all he surveys, and my personal overlord (I don’t even try to deny it any more).
14th October 2011
The clock sounds unnaturally loud in this quiet room. I put the radio on for company this morning, but it didn’t work. It works most mornings, but it didn’t work today. It’s been one of those days. You know them, I’m sure. I’ve drifted around, too restless to settle, too distracted to work, too consumed by everything that’s gone before…
14th October 2011
Is it just me or have my posse and I been lurching from crisis to crisis lately? Don’t get me wrong; I love being there to pick my buddies up and dust them off (figuratively, of course; we never talk about that time when it was literal), and I love knowing they’re there to perform the same service for me…
13th October 2011
So, apparently I’m blogging again. My old blog died a natural and much-needed death caused by neglect, and I for one am quite happy to let it. I think old blogs are like inconvenient time capsules; you read them years later and think to yourself, ‘Oh my god, was I really that angry/silly/stupid/naive?’ And the answer to that question is,…