Photo by Louise Brown My friends and family have a variety of dietary needs which include vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free and low-sugar for diabetes. I have become used to adapting food for them at various events and Christmas is no exception! This is one of my favourite desserts from childhood –Continue Reading
Melting ice caps As a scientist, albeit astrophysics, I find the government’s subtle changes of language rather telling. Last year they were “following the science”; earlier this year they were “listening to the scientists”; today they are “taking decisions based on the data…”. And have you noticed how anthropogenic climateContinue Reading
Screenshot from film teaser I went to watch the rebooted West Side Story with my mother before the full extent of the Omicron outbreak was known, thankfully at a very early and relatively empty screening of the film. I had been worried that it would ruin my mother’s fond memoriesContinue Reading
Illustration by Katy Read This for my mother, that hometruth bearer, who taught perseverance in a house made of ice. This for my father who each Hell sent day smashed iron from stone in the lightless depths. This for my school with its jagged desk edges, each one a snagContinue Reading
Too often government messages are contradictory istock image A report on the recent All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Coronavirus. How willing would people be to abide by the new rules now? Are the public unwilling to comply? Steven Reicher (Professor of Psychology at the University of St Andrews)Continue Reading
All I want for Christmas…Photo used with permission What do we really want for Christmas? They say caring is sharing and we will be doing that in spades over Christmas, giving presents to our nearest and dearest, friends and colleagues many via a ‘Secret Santa’. But perhaps what we really want isContinue Reading
Nicky Gascoigne, Labour, elected in North Ormesby Photo from twitter This weekend’s papers will be full of by-election news. The nationals will dissect the North Shropshire result until the cows in that lush green countryside come home. The Hexham Courant will devote, rightly, a deal of space to a by electionContinue Reading
Screenshot from St Nicholas Cathedral facebook page Photo by Matk A Hunter Photography Ever since confirmation of the lottery fund grant of £4.2 million to “revitalise” the cathedral in 2019, until its reopening on the 12 August 2021 there has been the development and then completion of a great amount ofContinue Reading
In September 2018, I began renting a small one-bedroom flat in Sunderland, on a 10-month contract, while I studied to become an FE teacher at the university. My flat was fine, a decent size for one person who had most of their possessions still at their parents’. It was aContinue Reading
George Lazenby and Diana Rigg in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service Screenshot from film It’s December, which means TV channels and streaming services will be flooded with the same perennial Christmas films that that many of us re-watch every year like Home Alone or It’s a Wonderful Life. However, you mayContinue Reading
