An interesting piece in one of Canada’s dailies today, highlighting how societal perceptions of mental illness are preventing people from seeking treatment. We really can’t move forward with mental health issues until we break down the walls of shame and secrecy surrounding them.
Month: February 2012
Yummy Mummy
In support of Yummy Mummy Week, 10th – 18th March 2012, in the UK, I’m sharing this picture of cake with you. The instructions said “a cake…” but, hell, who stops at one?
Ungrateful Bitch (Part 1)
My heart thuds and there’s a rushing noise in my ears, like a subway train. A single thought fills my head, ” I HAVE to get away.” My feet pound the asphalt and I risk a lightening glance over my shoulder at my pursuer. “Oh my God, he’s gaining on me!” Panic squeezes me in it’s icy, iron grip and my belief in my ability to outrun him vanishes.
Leaving on a jet plane…
Today I said goodbye to a friend. He’s a fellow expat, who arrived here from the UK shortly after us. He’s accepted a post in Vancouver, BC. Yeah, he’ll still be in the same country, but at a little under three thousand miles away, it’s not much different to him being back in Britain…
They have them here too!
I’ve only ever seen spelling bees in the movies so it’s another piece of Americana coming to life before my very eyes! It reminds me of our inappropriate joy at spotting fire hydrants – I am of course referring to the children here, I’d just like to make that clear…
The Great Outdoors
The end of February brings hope and excitement as the cold weather weakens and we start to sense the slow creep of Spring. Shrugging off the survival mind-set that got us through the winter, it feels great to be alive again!
Learning a language
A few years ago, if you told me one day I would learn Urdu, I’d have thought you were certifiable! My only experience of it was seeing the squiggly translations in the instructions to passengers on buses in the UK…
Living with Borderline Personality Disorder
In my early teens I began to experience overwhelming, unshakeable mood swings that, like a lens applied to my perspective, coloured my life. I would feel them starting, a slow-motion crushing sensation, like being caught in an industrial compacter, and I would be filled with dread.
A Matter of Faith
I remember the furore about Salman Rushdie’s “The Satanic Verses”, and the apoplexy over the Danish newspaper cartoon depictions of the prophet Muhammad (ﷺ). When the Monty Python film “Life of Brian” was released it was shunned by the big broadcasting corporations and banned by borough councils around Britain. But is making it illegal to criticise religion the way to go?
Beauty or Beast?
Back in Britain, Canada Geese always had that exotic cachet of having flown in from some far-away land. A little part of Canada right there in our midst!
It was amusing to discover that your average Canuck doesn’t hold them in such high esteem.