Leaving April behind and listening to news of eels

It’s Wednesday 29th April and anyone that didn’t already know it already can see that Brexit island is drifting slowly into obscurity that’s now become a tragedy we might not know the full weight of yet. I catch up on the news today and I watch the German news on DW because it’s sober and

love and trees in the time of corona

I cycle the length of the feeder to St Annes and drop off the lasagne and I remember when my friend went bridge swinging on New Years Eve once with climbing friends and they calculated the ropes wrong and she dropped straight in the feeder. The feeder canal runs from Netham Lock in East Bristol

Shooting stars over East street and craft kit handouts

It’s Thursday 16th April and the lockdown has been extended for a further three weeks. It’s day 23 or something like that of the lockdown in Bristol and I’m trying to navigate the new reality on my bicycle, one pizza delivery at a time. I follow a little girl in a tiger onesie across Prince

Happy Easter! and other unnecessary greetings

It’s Saturday 11th April 2020 and I’m waiting outside a restaurant in Clifton and he says to me ‘excuse me, do you want to go for a coffee with me some time?’ He’s another Deliveroo rider and he’s wearing lycra. I panic briefly and unwanted attention from men wasn’t something I’ve been preparing for in

Day 16 and I’m listening to the prophecies

It’s Thursday 9th April 2020 and when I’m picking up Caribbean food in St Pauls a woman tells me it’s all going to end next Thursday. ‘Everyone will be able to come out of their houses and it’ll go back to normal’. Oh really? I ask. That seems a bit soon, won’t there still be

day 15, and easter is coming

It’s Wednesday 8th April and one day into the third week of the UK lockdown and I’m confident that the people will prevail over the corporate death vultures circling the bones of the dying corpse of late stage capitalism. Meanwhile, I’m enjoying my daily cycle tour of Bristol’s suburbs bringing burgers to the locked-down masses.

two weeks of lockdown and the nightingales will regrow their wings when we entice them back to brexit island

“I’m enjoying a different relationship with planet earth”. It’s Thursday 2nd April and I’m in an online meeting with others in the advice team at Bristol Refugee Rights. We’re saying things we’re appreciating in our new reality. I’m wondering whether post-apocalyptic Bristolians will speak with the Bristol ‘l’ or will it be consigned to the

day 11 and a golden evening for a city in silent sleep

It’s Tuesday 31st March and day 11 of delivering food in a bag on my back from restaurants to houses during the UK’s shutdown. Some true heroes are emerging from the pandemic era and I hope we won’t forget them after this is all done: doctors and nurses, many of them from other countries (I