I’ve lost count of the days I’ve been without my laptop. These days, when the kid leaves for school (because that happens here), she sets a stuffed animal on my notebook (an actual notebook, my faves are marble composition books and I talked them about here.) The stuffed animal is a scruffy looking cat with big eyes which Isla has named after me, and insists is my writing mascot. (Still not as scruffy as this one.) Anyway, the thing is…
And so, Gin & Lemonade has ticked over to ten years old. To celebrate, I’ve actually started writing a book, and then I dumped coffee on my laptop. Yes, again. Regular readers (are there any from ten years ago? I honestly love you) will know that coffee spills are a regularish thing around here. And that I name my computers. Hemingway met a watery end, replaced by Truman, and then Frank. I’m back to writing on Truman, lumbering and slow.…
Isla’s new trick is to drape herself across the two close together couches in our living room, and kind of just hang out there. ‘This is supposed to be a comfortable yoga pose,’ she says. ‘Is it?’ I ask. ‘I don’t think so.’ ‘Good. Sit up so you don’t fall and hurt yourself.’ And she does, because I’m her mother, and sometimes she listens to me. She goes back to drawing and shows me her newest masterpiece a little while later. ‘Look, it’s us.’ she says.…
‘If you need me, I’ll be in the bath with my goggles on,’ said my newly minted six-year-old, over the weekend. June is a pretty big month for us around here, but I think life lately can be summed up in that sentence. We celebrate how and where we can. And even though it’s June, the weather has turned October-ish, so socially-distanced cupcakes outside get rained out, or cut short. More on that later. Before Isla’s birthday there was our…
The kid recently asked me if I wished I could walk. And I know we’re supposed to build up suspense in our writing, but I told her no. We’ve talked about disability awareness before, but she’s never asked me this question. I’ll start this by saying I used to be an ambulatory wheelchair user. That is a thing, it’s not some kind of miracle when wheelchair users get out of our chairs. Sit down. Growing up, I would walk in…
