The Psychic Week

Philippa is back from India and her intensive study of Iyenga yoga and its remedial possibilities. Happily, she came to see me this week to put her even more extensive knowledge into practice. I knew better than to panic … (click full story to read the full article)

Nellie-The-Wonder-Dog and I bump into Emma in the park quite often when we’re out walking. Emma is one of those people – blonde, petite and beautiful – who looks effortlessly glamorous, even in trainers and trackie bottoms, what with her glowing skin, bouncy hair and dash of bright lipstick. It’s galling really. We might be wearing similar dog-walking attire but …(click ‘full story’ to read the full article)

Step-son Max completed the Paris marathon in three hours and fifteen minutes, which if my maths serves me right – and there’s no reason why it should as I’ve always been bad at it – works out at a seven and a half minute mile. When I was running, the fastest …(click ‘full story’ to read the full article)

We’ve accepted an offer on our house. And oh, so easily, I slipped back into my default slattern mode and skipped off leaving the house in a tip with a light heart, taking Nellie The Wonder Dog and family to Camber Sands and friends for Easter. Then came a call. “Your buyer …(click ‘full story’ to read the full article)

“Oh, you’re B’s daughter. I think he’s a lovely, I do. He’s a lovely chap, your dad.” I was on the phone to one of the nurses where my father was in hospital. ‘Lovely’ was an unusual description. I checked we were talking about the same person. …

“For me,” said my music-producer friend, “the idealism of the ’60s came to an end when a friend who fought in Vietnam told me that the pilots flying back to base from bombing missions in Vietnam would listen to Dylan and Hendrix on full blast, then on spotting farmers in the fields, would swoop down and either bomb them or strafe them with bullets.” He then went on …

I’ve recently discovered that the BBC Breakfast News – i.e. live television – is not the place to suddenly and completely lose all command of the English language. I was asked late one evening by the MS Society if I’d go on the following morning and talk about …

“Why would someone put chopped up baguettes all over the roof of my car?!”

“I’ve got no idea Otto. It sounds odd.”

My neighbour, annoyed, stopped me in the street yesterday.

“Odd! It’s deranged! The other day there …

It’s always a bit disconcerting to have to strip down to my ‘Steptoes’ (knickers which look like something the old man would wear) as I had to this morning, so my body could be scrutinised through a magnifying glass with the aid of a hand-held light by a man in a pin-striped suit who to my mind looks disconcertingly like Lembit Opik. …

Nellie-The-Wonder-Dog, and my dad are both unwell. Thankfully though, according to the vet, Nellie should get better. I don’t know if the same can be said about my dad. He’s been admitted to hospital a few hundred miles from my house, having had a stroke. …

Pay attention, Elizabeth! How many times have I heard that, from both my school and my saxophone teachers? Presumably I’d know the answer if I’d been focusing as suggested. Only this week I had to go back to school …

It was freezing, and the sky was white. The lake at the bottom of the hill was iced over. Eve (10), Nellie-the-Wonder-Dog (4 months) and I (907) were out walking with Nellie’s best friend and her owner, Mils. …

Incidence of auto-immune diseases is on the increase in the West, and though there are lots of suggestions as to why this might be, including better hygiene in childhood amongst other environmental factors, it’s not known conclusively why this is so. …

IBS – Irritable Bowel Syndrome; IDS – Iain Duncan Smith or Irritating Dickhead Syndrome. Both conditions are bad for your health and a drain on the Welfare State. ‘How come?’ you may ask. …

There’s currently a kerfuffle in the press from indignant and affronted people who, given their unshakeable devotion to yoga practise, might reasonably be expected to just radiate calm. But feathers have been ruffled and ire raised by a recent article in the New York Times from the pen of its chief science writer William Broad, plugging his new book “The Science of Yoga; the risks and the rewards.” …

When people ask “So what do you do?” I panic. What do I say? Do they mean my work, or that which I currently spend most of my time doing? Because if they mean the latter, then I would have to say “I clean.” Or “I’m a cleaner” which implies I’m professional and get paid for it, which I’m not and don’t.

Happy New Year everyone! I don’t know about you, but I didn’t bother making any new resolutions. Having quite comprehensively failed to fully implement the ones I made last year, clean up my act, focus my life, get both mind and body ship-shape, etc., I vaguely considered – in the midnight haze of champagne and friends and a good time – that they might do for this year too.