Diary of a Lockdown, day 174: I feel like ‘carping’

In the nine days since I wrote here about our struggles to get a Covid-test for our symptomatic 15-year-old son, the chaos in the country’s testing system rarely been out of the headlines. After initially denying there were any problems, the government then blamed the public for demanding unnecessary tests; then admitted the backlog in the labs would […]
Diary of a Lockdown, day 165: ‘no test sites found’

Youngest child has a runny nose, headache, sore throat and cough. In normal times I’d tell him to soldier on, but he’s just started back to school and his whole year ‘bubble’ of more than 200 children will be told to stay home if he turns out to have Covid-19, so we’re doing the responsible […]
Diary of a Lockdown, day 96: is it all over?

Clearly we’ve all had enough – of no pubs and clubs, no summer holidays, no birthday parties, no fun. The pressure has been building and now the lid has blown off and we’re streaming to the seaside, to party in the street, to have barbecues with neighbours. You can’t blame us on these long, hot […]
Diary of a Lockdown, day 78: reading about race

Is this a tipping point? After all the moments when people said “never again”: like after the 1981 riots, like after Cherry Groce, like after Stephen Lawrence, like after Grenfell… As the list goes on and on you realise that racism doesn’t sink as easily as a statue of a slave-trader under murky waters. I’m […]
Diary of a Lockdown, day 41: looking ahead through clear skies

My reaction to last week’s news that British Airways may stop flying out of Gatwick and concentrate its London base at Heathrow, may not have been typical. My heart lifted a little. Could the scaling down of international air travel signal the beginning of a significant change in what we consider to be economic and […]
Diary of a Lockdown, day 33: let’s change ‘normal’

In whatever ways the lockdown eventually starts to lift, I’m hoping we don’t return to normal. Some things I would like to continue. Here are a four of them. ONE. A recognition and appreciation of the huge role immigrants and the descendants of immigrants play in the National Health Service and other essential parts of […]
Stronger together: in politics and in life

I constantly struggle with the tension between a life-long desire to change the world (still undiminished at 50!) and yoga’s ideas of acceptance and contenement with things just the way they are. In the days since the momentous Brexit referendum result, it’s been hard for even the most detached yogi to avoid the murky world […]
Turning 50 – my autumn years?

I turn 50 tomorrow. I can’t quite believe it. I feel more like 15: still a bit nervous when I meet new people, uncomfortable with figures of authority, curious about the world, full of awe for its beauty, and longing for connection with my fellow human beings. But I have to face it; I am […]