Practical, no-nonsense, and achievable tips — Inspiration for a writer is key to developing new ideas. Also key is keeping our perspiration to a minimum. Joking aside, when I write I seek spiritual and mental stimulation from a variety of sources such as: fiction and nonfiction, the natural world, and interactions with other people. One of…

As usual I’m left with more questions than answers, but that’s part of the immigrant’s journey — Forget Brexit and its toxic legacy. For as long as I’ve lived in the UK, the long-standing, unsolvable, contentious issue has been: milk in first or last? Welcome to Great Britain, a country where people take their tea-drinking seriously. Few topics generate as much controversy as this one, so becoming…

Unless you believe in yourself, no one else will — In one of the primary schools I worked at, almost fifteen years ago, I met a parent waving goodbye to her child at the school gates. It was my first day on the job and this parent and I struck up a conversation (I wasn’t only the latest addition to…

The column for those who like to swing more than one way… foodwise — My relationship with peanuts started very early in life. They were and still are a popular snack in Cuba. There are two types you see being sold everywhere in the streets of Havana and beyond: salty peanuts, which usually come in small cones (they used to cost ten cents of…

The unbearable lightness of heaviness (or something like that) —

Melodies to bring with you on a car trip — Get in the car. Adjust the seat and the rear-view mirror. Strap ourselves in and turn the engine on. Push the gear lever into reverse and enjoy that little moment when the car rolls back onto the road. Change into first gear, check your blind spot and drive off. This…

The column for those who like to swing more than one way… foodwise — No sooner had I started cooking the recipe below this weekend than YouTube played a wonderful trick on me. I had the squash wedges already in the oven and I was going through my channel subscriptions, hoping to find some good music to listen to. Well, would you believe it…

Skating away (on the thin ice of a new day)* — They all wait for their turn. Like athletes competing in a version of the Winter Olympics, but for winged creatures. They have an appreciative audience. We all gather up on the bridge. The professional photographers and the amateur ones. The ones with the long lenses and the ones with state-of-the-art…

Time for a bit of tough love — It’s an art-inspired morning. As if painted by Monet or Turner. A one-pound-coin-shaped sun ghosts through the trees, giving us brief hopes of the cycling training going ahead. A speck of sunlight lands on my cold neck and warms it nicely. Temperatures plummeted to below zero overnight and the ground…