“I am aghast and appalled at any people who decide that another group should not have their rights. We’re all each other’s people.” - Maya Angelou I have only met a handful of trans people in real life. I have no great knowledge or insight into the intricacies of their lives, other than to know that any mention of transgender issues, or even using the word “gender” on social media, can spark a flood of contrary opinions and occasionally fairly savage vitriol. This is a touchy subject, which appears to be ironically very binary for those who voice an opinion on it - black or white, yes or ..read more

I have been working in cancer screening for seven months now, and I have had the opportunity to reflect on what that means for me, as a cancer patient myself.  I thought I took on this job because I am interested in women’s health, and I was looking for a new challenge, and I admired the team I was joining. I didn’t consciously think about my own personal experience of cancer, but realistically it probably did motivate me. I have been involved in patient advocacy in a few small ways since my own diagnosis, and had applied for a couple of positions that were related to that, but I did no ..read more

Whatever the prevailing sentiment, I can be pretty much guaranteed to feel the opposite.  I am the epitome of contrary.   If the world insists that all jeans must be skinny, I will hunt down the last straight-legged pair in existence.   If everyone agrees that sea swimming is the absolute best thing ever, I will stuff my wetsuit trousers into the back of the wardrobe until all the townies have worn their DryRobes to a frazzle and moved on to nude zip-lining or whatever. Whatever the zeitgeist declares I must do, I scrunch up my face and say No! like a tantrummy toddler. I ..read more

In no particular order... Blood clots. Legs > lungs > brain (the more lethal, the less scary they are to me) Making phone calls Brown Thomas Falling out of the attic My children falling out of the attic Power tools. Circular saw > chainsaw > hedgetrimmer Fingers getting caught between two closing drawers R A T S  False accusations Legitimate accusations Twitter pile-ons Hair getting sucked in to the back of the hairdryer Hair straighteners Hairdressers Reversing uphill Reversing uphill with someone watching Driving in convoy  A room full of well-dressed blonde women Med ..read more

 I think about writing all the time.  I think, what would I write? I um.... I.... There doesn't seem to be any way to corral my thoughts into any cogent order. And for why, anyway? It seems unlikely that putting words down will make any difference to the kerfuffle.  There is grief and anger and sadness and emptiness, alongside fear and worry and anxiety. Guilt and remorse are shouldering their way in, next to hope and wonderment and anticipation.  Mundanity and sparks.  Boredom and peace. Emptiness and contentment.  Who knows ..read more

We've been on holidays.  Real ones. In an airport. On a plane. Queueing at passport control. Blast of heat outside the terminal. Heavy bags. Light sweat. Steering wheel on the wrong side. Olive trees. Brown earth. Weird insecty sounds. Indecipherable signposts.  It has all been there, waiting for us, all this time. People have been living their Covid lives in these towns and villages all over the world, in places we have been dreaming about going to and they have been dreaming about leaving. Once we got there, we broke the spell. What we thought was gone, unattainable, vanished forev ..read more

I've been neglecting this blog.  I write a column in a medical newspaper every couple of months, and that absorbs my writing energy. So I am going to double-job, and post my most recent column here, to keep you distracted until I get some time to write something else. (First published in the Medical Independent on 20th May 2021) Today I “attended” the IMO AGM, by which I mean it was transmitting from my laptop while I pottered about tidying up after breakfast, reorganising the knives in the dishwasher, and putting on the fifth load of laundry. I glanced at the screen occasionally to watch ..read more

The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is #ChooseToChallenge. The idea is that you stand in a commitment pose, holding your right hand up like you are taking a pledge (or acting in a low-rate courtroom drama) and vow to stand up for or against something that will enhance gender equity in our society. You could Choose to Challenge domestic violence, for example, or the kidnapping of girls, or the trafficking of female children for sex work.  Here are some of mine. I choose to challenge the pile of laundry, that is my task to tackle simply because it has always been.  I ..read more

Harrumph. Sigh. Really? Oh right.  It's just the same. Every day. Punxsutawney Phil and all that goes with him.  But it's not the same, because actually each day the heart sinks a little bit lower, the brain slows down a little bit more, the shoulders slump closer to the ground.  Eeyore would be in his element.  Wading through treacle, as my wise colleague Gabrielle has said. Or a slurry pit, with equally risky consequences.  The first time around we had adrenaline, claps, free chocolate bars, free live music streamed to our couches. We had warm evenings. Food delivery ..read more

I have been precipitously close to tears for the past few weeks. It probably started, fairly unsurprisingly, with the Late Late Toy Show, and sort of snowballed from there. The intense emotional battering that has been bubbling away beneath the service of all our lives this years was bound to start spurting through the cracks once we got to the Year-In-Review end of the TV schedule.  I am no stranger to the Chin Up and Shut Up school of psychological containment, preferring to barge along chirpily while all around me goes to shite. But there is always a leaky pipe somewhere along the way ..read more