Tag Archives: Britain
May 7, 2012 Safe. Secure. Reasonable. Informed: A few words on mental health.
DISCLAIMER: The following post took place over the course of several days of teeth gnashing. Its contents are intended for my own amusement only. Any medical advice adhered to that results in your own suicide and/or the murders of your loved ones in the most bloodthirsty and inhumane way conceivable is neither my responsibility nor anyone else’s, you fiend. If you [...]
Tags: Batman, Britain, Denmark, Drugs, mental health, Portsmouth, Psychotherapy, Scotland, SSRI, Strawberry
- 2 comments
- Posted under Rants & Tirades
April 28, 2012 Ten opinions from Edinburgh Zoo
Back in December, along with several billion pushchairs, I visited Edinburgh’s pandas. Four months later and one mating season already given up on, I decided I didn’t care what everybody’s favourite asexual bamboo aficionados were up to; instead I wondered how all the other animals were feeling. 1. Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes)
Tags: Animals, Australia, Britain, december 21st 2012, Edinburgh, mayan prophecy, Nudity, Pandas, Scotland, Vox Pop
- 7 comments
- Posted under Mockery & Satire
April 10, 2012 A Haunted House and Falling off the Danish Bandwagon
So it turns out that the squirrels that scamper around the bounding bunnies to the refrain of robins and mischievous magpies (sorry) are the descendants of the very rodents my great grandmother enjoyed watching before she died. Yep, call it coincidence or providence, but this old hospital I’ve moved into is where my mother’s nan spent her final months. [...]
Tags: Animals, Books, Britain, Death, Denmark, Edinburgh, Money, Music, Scotland, Writing
- 6 comments
- Posted under Rants & Tirades
April 8, 2012 Lukewarm turkey and an ode to the single-bed
Before you diagnose yourself with depression or low self-esteem, first make sure that you are not, in fact, just surrounded by assholes. – William Gibson It’s good that, isn’t it; I love that sentiment. Saw it on a t-shirt the other week and looked it up. Not familiar with William Gibson, but from scanning his [...]
Tags: Alcohol, Britain, Denmark, Drugs, Food, Middlesbrough, Nudity, Scotland, Students
- 2 comments
- Posted under Science & Nature
April 4, 2012 My return to university and another death in the family
A girl I developed a debilitating and unrequited crush on once called me a drifter down her perfect nose. We’d met at a staff party; I’d been drinking warm beer in a friend’s apartment, watching England lose to Germany with the sound off, A-ha on repeat and bag of something expensive went up my nose [...]
Tags: Alcohol, Britain, Death, Denmark, Dogs, Drugs, Middlesbrough, Pandas, Scotland
- 5 comments
- Posted under Rants & Tirades
February 24, 2012 A Full Life
And after a while – with my mother tearing out the hair I’m surprised didn’t fall of its own accord years ago, and my auntie and I playing good cop / bad cop to the duty Doctor’s idea of palliative care – my Nan is finally on morphine. If it wasn’t for the wonderfully compassionate [...]
Tags: Britain, Death, Politics, Portsmouth
- 4 comments
- Posted under Science & Nature
February 9, 2012 Magnetic Gandhi
I read an interesting article the other day in which Stewart Lee raises a terrifying argument about Scottish Independence; a point summed up succinctly in the sub heading: The loss of 5.5 million Scots would mean 5.5 million fewer voices to say no to Cameron’s cronies. As you may know, there are more pandas in [...]
Tags: Alcohol, Britain, Drugs, End-times, Food, Money, Multimedia, Politics, Scotland, Writing
- 3 comments
- Posted under Rants & Tirades
January 26, 2012 International Students at Teesside University
Middlesbrough’s Teesside University has a student body of nearly 30,000. Of that number, more than 1,500 are international students. The ones we tend to notice are female but there is hushed talk of males. Sam Howitt and I wondered what on earth possesed them to study here, of all places, but realised quickly that such [...]
Tags: Britain, Journalism, Middlesbrough, Students, Video, Vox Pop
- 5 comments
- Posted under News & Comment
January 23, 2012 Several Hundred Words About Money
In Britain, welfare amounts to over 30% of overall public spending. If we ignore the bail outs – and we should, because £1.2 trillion could have built schools on the moon – then that’s the single largest area of public expenditure; a provision to guarantee a basic standard of living for all those in financial [...]
Tags: Britain, Journalism, Money, Politics
- 1 comment
- Posted under News & Comment
March 14, 2012 The future’s bright – the future’s dinosaurs
Middlesbrough town centre’s future as a shopping destination has received an eleventh-hour reprieve in the form of two exciting initiatives. The projects come at a time when the town’s failure to secure city status in its recent bid has disappointed many locals; the first is a ‘Portas Pilot’ town bid and the second, a proposal to introduce [...]
Tags: Britain, Dinosaurs, Middlesbrough, Money, Politics