… but just to these emails. Hello there! After nine years of posting my weekly columns online, I have posted my last. As many of you will know, they also appear every week in the papers and online platforms owned by the brilliant Highland News and Media, who have paid me to write them for… Read more »
Posts Categorized: HNM Column
About the Trans Debate.
I’m a woman and a trans ally. In theory, at least. In case it’s important for you to know this, I am a woman, and I am a trans ally. At least I think I am a trans ally, but I’ve never had cause to put that theoretical support into action. I don’t have a… Read more »
To quit, or to rest? Plus bawdy Burns, and another tech fail.
Ardern was right to quit There’s an image of Banksy’s that I used as my screensaver for a while, and it came to mind again this week. It’s a black painting on a white-washed wall and depicts a little girl sitting cross-legged, her head in one hand. She’s watching a tiny blue bird, which is… Read more »
Green Freeport for Cromarty Firth? Great news!
You’ll have heard the news then? Last week, Rishi Sunak flew into the Highlands to congratulate search and rescue teams, toast marshmallows with Sea Scouts, and meet Nicola Sturgeon. He also officially confirmed what this newspaper had announced a few days earlier, which is that one of two new Green Freeports for Scotland will be… Read more »
Doing ‘something’ in 2023
Goodbye, 2022! I hate the phrase ‘Good Riddance’, but I’ll not be sorry to see the back of 2022. It was a year which started under renewed Covid restrictions and has seen a terrible war in Ukraine, plus three Tory Prime Ministers and outrageous political turmoil. We’re in the throes of an economic crisis, with… Read more »
Traitors John – Murdered!
Eye to eye with a dead man The last person I expected to see on press night at Eden Court’s panto was a man who had been murdered the night before. But John McManus, co-director of Peter Pan, was looking surprisingly well on it. He had been murdered in cold blood by Wilf, Alyssa, and… Read more »
The Beautiful Game, Memories and Sled dogs
Crikey, is football always this good? I didn’t mean to watch the final of the World Cup on Sunday afternoon – I intended just to have it on in the background while I wallowed on the settee in recovery mode. But my attempts to recharge after a shockingly indulgent Friday night, then dining, drinking, and… Read more »
What’s in a Christmas Tree?
Our Christmas Tree is the story of us I like to wait till December is in double figures before starting to get ready for Christmas. Granted, it makes for a ridiculously frantic fortnight, but that intensity adds to the magic. On Saturday morning we got the boxes down from the loft and decorated the tree…. Read more »
Goblin mode, Mistletoe and Traitors
Giving ‘Goblin Mode’ the cold shoulder It’s that time of the year where, in between fretting about energy bills, the cost of Christmas, and summoning the strength to write Christmas cards, we find out 2022’s official Words of the Year. According to Oxford University Press, and 93% of the 340,000 English speakers who voted in… Read more »
Business support is needed too.
Staying Cash-positive in Inflationary Times “These days I can measure someone’s happiness by how long they have left on their fixed-rate mortgage.” Those words, from the Financial Times’ Consumer Editor and economist Claer Barrett, at a business event in Inverness last week, raised a wry, nervous laugh around the room. It was relatable, accurate, and… Read more »