Places

  • 12. St Catherine’s…

    Passing through Feltham again, I paused to take a picture of an interesting building: a church spire somehow attached to what looked like office buildings. With the benefit of time on the train, I got a-googling and discovered it’s what is left of St Catherine’s which was closed in 1974, converted into offices in 1981… Continue reading

  • 11. Re: Upon This Rock

    This week Pádraig Ó Tuama poses the question: “What is a rock I’ve got a memory with?” in his newsletter. For whatever reason, the first place the question took me was Nigeria, specifically the northern bits of the small state I trace my origins to. Some of my earliest memories of growing up are of… Continue reading

  • 9. Out and about

    After nearly three years of making notional plans to meet up as a group, it finally happened; my two and J’s two spending the whole day at the Legoland close by. Of course, there was tardiness involved, the five year old deciding at the last minute that her regular breakfast of cereal wasn’t going to… Continue reading

  • 8. Re: Running Behind

    Photo by Andy Beales on Unsplash — In her Granta essay, Running Behind, author Stephanie Wambugu reflects on her relationship with (a lack of) punctuality. Weddings and church services are specifically noted in the piece – no surprise to anyone who grew up in an African context. As someone who is fiercely protective of their… Continue reading

  • 6.Pula

    It seems like a trick of time: I have hardly blinked, but yet my few weeks of traipsing around Pula in spring are all of eight years ago. What I remember of it is the slow leisurely pace of life with visits to the usual tourist spots and then going off exploring by ourselves on… Continue reading

  • 5. Small chops

    The train home for me passes through Feltham, home to perhaps one of the more visible Nigerian food spots in Surrey. Today on a whim, I opted for a pit stop, aiming to satisfy my cravings for some hot spicy food. Tucking in when I finally made it home, I felt transported to one of… Continue reading

  • 3. Cab Conversations in Two Acts

    Photo by Viktor Avdeev on Unsplash — Twice over the past two weeks, I had the pain pleasure of needing a taxi early in the morning. To blame was a combination of a super -early start and return to office mandates with the usual options not being feasible for different reasons. In Uber’s hands then… Continue reading

  • Spring-ish

    Out and about.. — It is perhaps something between wildly optimistic and foolhardy to call it for spring in the first week of March, but given the many days of sustained highs with temperatures north of 14C and nary a cloud in sight, one can be forgiven for snatching at these first nascent signs of… Continue reading