Freelance Writer
“I feed the pigeons, I sometimes feed the sparrows too, it gives me a sense of ENORMOUS well-being” – Blur – Parklife A momentary burst whips my attention, particles dispersing in a brief explosion before returning to their centre as if pulled back by the sharp inhale of gravity or a length of bungee cord.…
Not every day can be like this, unfortunately. Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash Enniscrone, Co. Sligo. We are still locked down and Claremorris hasn’t drifted any further towards the sea, so I’m still reminiscing on pre-Level 5 surfing days. The sunny respite today from this strange series of storms reminds me of one of my last day’s…
The country’s going into lockdown again, a glitch in the normal progression of time. I went for a morning walk around the lake and it seemed like everyone is out preparing for it. It might be just in my head – polluted by the news – but everyone’s stride seems to take on an extra…
I started writing while living in Hanoi, most often when whiling away hours in one of its endless offering of cafes Eventually I decided it’d be rude not to write down some of the things that I saw.
In which I document my attempts to learn to surf over the coming winter in the west of Ireland. It seems like it will involve a lot of waiting around in the water.
Westport Road near Clifden, Co. Galway. Photo by Mateusz Delegacz on Unsplash It’s the middle of February, and there’s a Fatima sun shining through the sleety, snowy, silver-grey skies. The weather is worse than that of slow January, which was cold but clear and dry. Fresh and invigorating. February has no time to waste, even in a…
Photo by Alfons Morales on Unsplash There’s more value in the books you haven’t read than in the ones you have, or so Nassim Taleb tells us about Umberto Eco’s anti-library: despite having over thirty thousand books in his personal library, he is prouder of the ones he hasn’t read than the ones he has. This attitude should…
Being willing to look foolish is a key part of being happy. Me, in Ha Giang, Vietnam, April 2018. I realised in the writing of this post that all of the lessons I’ve reflected on here refer to results that have come not just from WRITING articles, but POSTING them in the public domain as…
Photo by Johannes Plenio on Unsplash Autumn never meant much to me until this last couple of weeks. It just wasn’t summer any more, or I couldn’t wait for Christmas, and for most of my life it’s just been the first few months of the school year, a settling-in period. Life doesn’t start ‘til it’s nearly Christmas, and…
I’ve learned a lot from writing. I write about travel and self-improvement. I’m currently doing a Masters degree in Psychology and Wellbeing. There’s a lot of reading and writing involved in that too. It often involves gathering information, fact-checking and a lot of research. But the learning isn’t about the research you do, or the…