2020: Still Life

I take a lot of photographs. Since the dawn of the smartphone I have been filling various clouds with souvenir snapshots from every meal, beach walk, sunset, moment of calm, night out, fireside, and dog-spotting,… More

The Lockdown Kitchen Bucket List: A perfect bowl of imperfect gnocchi

After a week that, in it’s busyness, felt distinctly pre-lockdown, I have spent very little time in the Mountpleasant Kitchen. So after waking hungry and relatively clear-headed on Sunday, having wisely snuck away early from… More

Picking up where I left off..

Thinking about it, I have been picking up and leaving off various blogs for a decade. Generally it’s quite easy to come and go, metaphorically picking the pen back up after a few blank pages… More

April Reads

Yes, yes I know. I did the thing I promised myself I wouldn’t do: I neglected my blogging duties and let my reading reviews slide yet again.

Catching up on some reading – February and March Reads bumper edition

OK, brace yourselves folks, we’re going on a three month roller-coaster of reading with some wham-bam-thank-you-mam write ups because I have been lax, negligent even, in my monthly bookish thoughts and it has become a thing bigger than myself, casting a shadow over my to do list, looming over me while I cower in shame.

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January Reads

It has been quite a fruitful month for reading – apparently holidays and being ‘funemployed’ are the answer to the staggeringly impressive reading paces I’ve admired on Bookstagram.

It’s been rather a balanced month in terms of fiction and non-fiction too. Three of each. A good habit to stick to this year I think. And here’s something I haven’t been able to say in a while – I would wholeheartedly recommend each and evey one of them. So if you’re looking for some 2019 reading inspiration, here’s what I’ve got to offer…

Safe Sounds by Carol Ann Duffy

I’ve been pondering the most suitable poem to open this year’s selection all month. January calls for inspiration, motivation to persevere with New Year’s Resolutions, hope and promise to see us through what is for many, the darkest month of the year. But I like January.

Five Things: Thoughts on Turning 30

What a weekend.

On Saturday I bid a fond farewell to my twenties with a jam-packed, boozy day full of food and surrounded by good friends. On Sunday morning I woke up, miraculously hangover-free, and heralded in my thirties with more food, the same bunch of pals and a bloody huge Happy Birthday balloon which had to be manoeuvred home on the windiest day of 2019 so far.

Field Notes: New Years in Malta

This year I knew no fewer than three newly wed couples who were jetting off to sunnier, or at least different, climes for the Christmas festivities, and while I can understand the desire to getaway and make the most of the annual leave, for me, Christmas begins at home.

December Reads

The last push for the Good Reads challenge saw me overtake my 35 book target and rattle through another couple of reads during the festive period. Of course, having so much time to kill in departures and on flights has aided that. My desk today is from a cosy corner in Malta, looking out on a blue sky, white-capped waves and sunshine on sandstone rooftops. Not a bad way to ease back into things.

Lady Lazarus by Sylvia Plath

On Friday morning I jolted awake at 5.45am, startled by a door slamming behind me in my dream. Unable to get back to sleep and irritated by a new clicking in the rotation of my ankle, I started to think about my body and how it’s held up in what has been its thirtieth year on this earth.

November Reads

With long nights stretching into winter chill, you might imagine I’d have had more time on my hands to curl up with a book, but somehow no. I have been dipping in and out of several different reads, and excitedly, began my first chronological read of Nigel Slater’s The Christmas Chronicles which will see me through until Spring, but it’s all been rather slow, leisurely reading – which, considering the breakneck pace of life recently, is perhaps a blessing in disguise.

The Blend is an Art: Chivas Regal UK

Scotch has never really been my cup of tea. It doesn’t exactly come naturally, being Irish. When I do pick up a bottle of whiskey, which generally only happens when the weather turns and there’s a threat of flu on the horizon, it’s always Jameson. And even then, it’s hot, with ginger or not at all.