I woke up this morning unable to breathe. I’d been dreaming that I was suffocating and when I woke up, I found I still couldn’t breathe. I sat straight up in bed and opened my mouth and gulped in some air. Hay fever. Just bloody hay fever making me think I’m
I stared at the self-service till in the supermarket, and it stared back at me. I braced myself and pressed the start button. Bagels – check. The satisfying beep told me I’d successfully united the barcode and the scanner on first go – result! Bread – check. Surely a record?
There is so much advice in the world and there are so many memes with wise sayings, but the only one that has stuck in my mind resolutely for years now is “Use the good bath oil”. I came across it in a magazine a long time ago – I
I’m filing this firmly under “just a thought, and I might be wrong” but here goes: Running back to the car after the school drop one morning recently, I fished in my pocket for my keys and came out with a piece of paper instead. Still running, and trying to see
17 years ago, on New Year’s Eve, I turned to my husband and told him my resolutions. I can’t remember them precisely now – I think I wanted to learn Italian, teach myself to cook, and break my newly formed post-work shopping habit. We were living in an apartment in
Yes, this is a very niche Christmas gift list. But I’ve never done a Christmas gift list before, and it struck me that if you know a freelancer, this might be of help. (If you are related to me, got me in Kris Kindle and don’t know what to buy
It’s kind of a tipping point isn’t it – a euro for a stamp. I remember when the price went up, Christmas was the first thing that sprang to mind. 60 cards would mean €60 on stamps. It might just be too much. And over the last week, having seen many
“You just end up buying things for them, you never shop for yourself anymore,” said a friend of mine, when I was expecting my first baby. And indeed, lots of other people have echoed that since. Many’s the mum who has had a rare child-free shopping trip, only to find
“Well if you could just stop asking stupid questions!” said the loud man on the DART, making me jump. He wasn’t talking to me, he was talking to a woman sitting opposite him. My eyebrows went up. Who talks to anyone like that? “Here’s another one,” he said then, “Why
I went to U2’s last ever Irish concert, in Slane in 2001. It was the best concert I was ever at, made all the more special knowing it was their last one ever. Oh, except for the one I saw in Croke Park some time in the middle of the
Sun and showers and sun showers, school runs snaking in and out between parked cars, windows down, temperatures up, singing voices raised, tempers frayed. June is everywhere and we are exhausted. It’s time to wind down towards summer holidays, but at this time of year, it always feels like it’s ramping
I need to make a confession. I hate driving. I avoid driving beyond my local comfort zone if at all possible. And I never, ever (deliberately) drive on motorways. On a number of occasions in the last few years, I’ve decided that I need to be brave, and I’ve made
This time two years ago, I said goodbye to my IFSC office for good, and set out to give freelancing a go for six months. At that point I would decide if it was working or not – or if I’d have to dust off the CV and try to get
Once upon a time, back in September, it all seemed very difficult. Not seriously difficult – just everyday stuff. Struggling with three in school for the first time. Struggling with three lunches and three lots of homework and three tired kids. Struggling with a little boy who likes to talk a
I promised myself (not just an in-the-air promise – an actual written down promise) that the next time I had a lull, I’d take a morning for myself. And here I am – almost all current deadlines met, book edits on the way but not here yet – doing just
As I sit listening to the wind howling around the eaves and the rain spattering on the glass, I’m wondering about the hardy souls who’ll brave a night out, and I’m secretly glad of the child-spun tether that keeps me home tonight. And then I remember another St Patrick’s Day back
Can you chart your life in music? (Geddit?) That’s what Nicola from Simply Homemade asked and I kept thinking about it falling asleep every night, so now I’ve written it down. There’s no way to fit in all the songs that punctuated childhood, teen discos, college years, and moving in with a
What are you reading, listening to, watching, eating, drinking, looking forward to, worrying about . . ? That’s the question Maud from Awfully Chipper asked herself – then asked everyone else – a snapshot of what’s going on right now. So here’s mine: Reading I’m reading and really enjoying Distress
One Friday morning last autumn, sitting in a coffee shop, I finished tweaking the first three chapters of a book, attached them to an email, and hit send before I could chicken out. It felt good. Well, for at least thirty seconds until I realised I’d sent it without checking for typos. The next big
It’s 11.25pm on Thursday night and I’ve just spent five minutes scrolling through Facebook. Now I’m anxious because that’s five minutes that I didn’t spend doing something I should be doing, like editing the article that’s due tomorrow or editing the book that’s due next week. One part of me