misc.
Paris With Children
I’m just back from the city of lights with my 13-year-old, and it is time to acknowledge that we are not perfect travelling companions. For one thing, I am a stoic, happy to walk for miles through hot and dusty Paris streets searching for small museums and eccentric shops, while Mademoiselle would beaucoup prefer to [...]
Another Perfect Summer Holiday
I’ve spent most of the past week threatening my daughter with hideous sanctions if she does not get out of the house and do something old-fashioned. She meets these threats with contempt and pity, and I generally lack the energy to demand that she put away the bloody i-pod and read a £!!*%@?* book. [...]
I like to think of myself as a reasonable person.
Dear Sir or Madam in what is laughably referred to as ‘customer service’: Thank you very much for your demand that I pay a large sum plus a fine “at my earliest convenience” — which I have ripped into a gazillion tiny pieces. I have searched my soul at length to determine whether it was [...]
America Freaks Me Out.
I’ve been in San Francisco for eight days now, and despite all the offers to stay at my mother’s apartment, I’ve been happily ensconsed in my modest little hotel. Reading in hotel rooms has never been my strong suit, and besides, I consider it part of my homework to check out the local zeitgeist. Extensive [...]
Dr House would like this.
I’m not a big fan of House but I’ve seen it once or twice. When they told me my mother had had a stroke, I leapt on a plane and came to SF to try to pick up the pieces. For the first few days she was pretty out of it, but what struck me as [...]
Storytelling for idiots
I am not a natural storyteller. I’m a natural writer, and a moderately natural creator-of-characters, but when it comes to figuring out what happens next, forget it. Conversations with myself at chapters 3, 9, 22 and 31 tend to go something like this… ME: World comes to an end and they live happily ever after? [...]
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