June 28, 2020
It’s 5 am, still too hot for sleep, and I find myself wide awake hearing the patter of welcome raindrops falling against the window. I feel both grateful for a respite from the heat and a pang of regret that I left the washing out all night. I get up, go out into the garden, […]
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June 22, 2020
Last weekend my son sustained head trauma. Someone punched him so hard it broke his mastoid and, as he fell he hit and cut his head. For two days there was blood coming from his ear, he couldn’t keep a glass of water down, and he was so dizzy he couldn’t get himself off the […]
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June 14, 2020
“What do you think of the statues being taken down?” I ask my children while we’re doing the washing up. “I don’t know why we have statues at all,” says my daughter. “It’s hard to know where to draw the line. I guess nobody is all bad,” I say. My son is straight back with, […]
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June 7, 2020
It’s time for dinner as my daughter arrives in the kitchen. “Can you empty the dishwasher while we’re plating up?” I ask, not sure what response I’ll get because she looks as if she’s just woken up. In case I was in any doubt she prefaces any further activity with, “I’m tired.” Despite her weariness […]
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May 31, 2020
On a balmy late spring evening we’re eating outside huddled next to the wafts of jasmine bloom providing a flourish to the end of the day. My daughter has spent all day indoors revising for exams. But instead of taking the nervous walk into cavernous halls on campus, she’ll be sitting in her room in […]
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