Sivota Bay, Monday morning

The swallows, the flowers, the morning light. Cigarette smoke, petrol fumes, coffee vapour and spray-on sun lotion. Dutch, Italian, French, Serbian, English, German, Swedish and of course Greek. Here as in every village, the widows still wear their habits of mourning, despite some of them not being much older than my suntan-wearing parents. Cat on...

Sivota Bay, Lefkas

Sunday 22 August 2021. Evening The scents from the mountains and the forest caress their way down to the boat. Olive trees, oregano, pale ivy, cypress, grapevines, wild onions, and pine. And sea. And dry clay. The moon is full, completely orange and rises in the eastern entrance to the bay. My cycle matches that...

Tranquil Bay, Nidri, Lefkas

Sunday 22 August 2021, morning The sun is still hidden behind the mountains in this lake-like bay. Slowly it makes its way higher, colouring the Mediterranean pines peach. A rooster heralds its approach, confirming to last night’s party-goers and today’s day-afterers which time of day it is. The distant church bells confirms which day of...

Poopy phone: prose

Because of some heart palpitations, caused by stress and anxiety, I'm not drinking at the moment. So I can't even blame it on a good night, dropping my phone in the toilet. It was in my back pocket after watching Ocean's Eleven, tidying up the living room and the kitchen, and when brushing my teeth....

Therapy

Hello Doctor. Hello Jessica. What seems to be the problem? I feel an existential dread and anxiety over life itself, while also fearing death; my own, my loved ones, the natural world's. I'm trapped in an abyss-like darkness of my own thinking and the inevitable decline and death of the planet and human society. Petrified...

Sunday 18 July 2021. Morning

I think I’m ready. As ready as an unprepared person can be. Bag is packed, shower had, breakfast eaten, train, flight, hotel, coach and ferry booked. I’m sure I’m missing something. Something vital. But I guess I can take comfort in the knowledge that I won’t know what this is until I arrive in Inverness....

Another an’ ‘nother round

Went to the Arts Picturehouse to see Another Round. It's cheaper on Mondays, and my membership has been extended because of Covid. It's been nearly a year since I was last in the cinema, to watch Tenet. And the trip to the cinema, and the film itself, made me happy with my commitment to celebrate...

England’s loss

Like the person at the heart of a sad montage. The one who’s awake when everyone else is passed out around them, with bottles and cigarettes and torn one dollar bills strewn across the room. The one that lights a cigarette from the embers of last night’s fire, feeds vodka to the house plants before...

Back home. For now

Cleaned the house. Fed the cat. Packed my bags. Waited for my cousin to come home. Sat down with the cat in my lap and had a little cry, relieved about the housesitting being over with only a few broken bits of porcelain, and sad that my stay of privacy and space has come to...

A holiday adventure

Two words rumble around my dreams all night: ferie and urlaub. Different languages, none of them mine, for the same thing. The 6am alarm dispels the words and whatever meaning they might hold. The drawn up blind reveals a greyer and more humid day outside, like the mystery of the dreams and words clouding over...