Theres a certain defensiveness to being in your late-twenties-approaching-thir ty. On a Friday or Saturday night, staying out past midnight becomes a kind of challenge. You sneak at a look at your wat...
I spent years here, bleary-eyed in wood panelled, green-carpeted reading rooms, hunched over text, yellow highlighters and pens scattered across the table, milky light in winter struggling through th...
I like waking up on a Sunday and being pleasantly surprised that the sun is out. Jumping on my bike and cruising down to the harbourside market, theres nothing better than a spot of people watching, ...
We made a blackberry clafoutis with two punnet of blackberries we collected from the riverbank. The berries were soaked in salted water for an hour or two to draw out any maggots that were hiding awa...
I went out today with the intention of buying a kindle touch. The words marched, business-like, across the grey, monochromatic, matte screen. I tried very hard to get excited, flipping pretend pages,...
Theres an element of naivete to all this talk about getting back in touch with the land. It gets sold to us as an idyllic paradise where waste is greatly reduced, the sun always shines, and if you re...
Notes for Sick Days ♥ Dont try to read Jane Austen. Too hard. ♥ Instead squint at books like Open Studios by Lotta Jansdotter, Modern Vintage Style by Emily Chalmers, and Garden of Eden by Walter H L...
The day the ground beneath my feet stop fascinating me will be the day when I know Ive lost - lost what? you ask. Lost wonder. Lost hope. Lost admiration. Lost all hope of growth. So many people pace...
I took a train from Paris and stood shivering at the bus stop to get to the chateaux. The two women at the ticket counter looked surprised to see me. There was no one around. For hours I wandered the...
When I first heard Christine talk about Mark, she used the words "soulmate". She talked of a man who wrote poetry, left quotes about the universe and astronomy on her work desk, and with wh...
Maybe one day youll be here too. Well load up a car or a campervan with big, old quilts, sunscreen, cameras and film. The chilly bin will be packed full of home brew, strawberries, cherries, and ice ...
The place where you live is empty. Youre alone. You just loaded the dishwasher and its humming in the living room downstairs. The windows in your room are wide open and in the distance, a car alarm s...
Theres something cold about the internet. Peering into a light source, tapping into keys, half your attention on the tv or a text message or something out the window. In the lead up to Christmas, Ive...
The bag below comes from a thrift shop in Vienna. I dragged my friend round various metro stations and through broad, sleepy, leafy avenues on a brilliantly sunny day. Not knowing what to expect of V...
We had such a big earthquake in Wellington yesterday. Living here, you get used to the ground shuddering underneath your feet but yesterday, it wasnt so much a shudder but a huge jolt. It sounded lik...
This is what I want for Christmas. I want blushing peonies streaked with red and pink, sponge cake with cream and strawberries and chocolate buttercream icing, lots of sun and laughter and ridiculous...
My days and nights have been filled with flowers, Eiffel-tower shaped pasta, soap that looks like slices of cake, bagels and blueberries and nights at the ballet. The coming of summer always feels li...
Frank Sinatras in my head. And I dont know why. Lets fly, lets fly away. Maybe its because the days are so much longer now. If you can use some exotic booze... And in the mornings theres strips of li...
Im having trouble thinking about what to say to you. I asked someone what I should say and the suggestion was Why dont you write about how this cherry blossom path is hidden away so well that when yo...
Since the last time we talked, Ive started taking French classes, bought a cotton sundress with a narrow red belt, started a collection of odd shaped jars for spring flowers, and squeaked with deligh...
I think about the person who owned this book, years- maybe decades, before it came to me. She dreamt of Edwardian cotton dresses with lace trims and grosgrain ribbons in her hair. Maybe she would h...
I read somewhere once that being an adult was all about dirt. It meant plunging your hands into a variety of disgusting holes, drains, pipes, and crevices to fish out fetid, horrible, drippy things. ...
It took Dan a year and a half to ask Jenna out after they first kissed on New Years Eve. Earlier this year during a romantic weekend away, Dan proposed and Jenna said yes. Theyre both kids from the c...
Im thinking of a life without things; or at the very least, without clutter. Oliver Burkeman, a columnist from The Guardian, recently wrote about getting rid of memory boxes, and how the time and tho...
Theres something heavy sitting at the bottom of my stomach. It aches and aches and aches. It feels like a cavern which only wants more and more and more. Whether its the newest pair of shoes or the s...
I watched Lars von Triers Melancholia in an overheated movie theatre with my jacket wrapped around my knees. Id gobbled up my fig and honey ice cream fifteen minutes before the movie even started and...
Truth? What we have in common is the past, not the present or the future. Weve built a fort made up of giggles, slippery sleeping bags, and loud music blaring from my stereo. While it is not modern o...
July smelt strong coffee, rising damp and cold rain hitting newly laid tarmac. He tasted crunchy frost on heavy wool coats, the air of relief when people plunged into warm rooms, and discontent; yes,...
Im in awe of a lot of you. When publishers wont publish your books, you make your own publishing company. When quarter life crisis sets in, you give up profitable but predictable jobs to enrol in Eng...
This is for you. You dont need your friends, your boy, your husband, your kids, or your mum and dad. Heres the equation. Money for a plane ticket to the places of your choice + Free time + You = the ...
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