Stories, ideas & observations

Some stories contain mature language

1. 01

   That's One Way to Say It

   Short story · 2002 · Mature language

   (a thousand miles from nowhere) A wild walk through a landscape built entirely out of idioms and clichés, where water falls off ducks' backs and the cows finally come home.

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2. 02

   Merlot Drama

   Short story · Competition entry · Mature language

   A theatre director hands out thank-you bottles of merlot, each with a tiny label nobody reads. One bottle sets off on a long journey from cupboard to cupboard.

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3. 03

   No Ball in the House

   Short story · 2002

   Four travellers, a French Riviera apartment, a gang of very loud scooters and one indoor soccer pass that goes spectacularly out the window.

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4. 04

   Headline

   Short story · 2002, rewritten 2009

   “It was a drizzle infested evening. I was on the bus from Paris to Amsterdam…” Seven hours, a locked toilet and something ground-shaking about to happen.

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5. 05

   Songbird

   Short story

   Zac Tangiers and his battered guitar, Sabine, write a new song, and one by one the birds of the neighbourhood arrive to listen.

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6. 06
   RefiningEssay · Blog · Mature language “I strive for a better way to do almost everything that I do.” A short essay on asking one question: is there a better way to do this? Read hereClose

   I strive for a better way to do almost everything that I do.

   I reinvent myself, and my living space constantly, which somehow represents my mental and spiritual states at any given point in ways I don't fully understand but respect enough to be aware of and maintain. Refining.

   Strategies and processes are sieved and sifted through and through.

   The most important question in my life is not “Am I happy?” that's a fucking minefield that question. No, I prefer the question:

   “Is there a better way to do this?”

   Can I achieve a more fulfilling result with less effort or indeed greater forethought or preparation?

   The answer is most often “Yes”.

   With a little more consideration for the activity at hand, I can frequently achieve a greater result and have a better, more present connection with the task involved. I can be a part of it. Not an accessory, a functioning part that is conscious of its role in the process. I can affect it and it can affect me.

   This is synergy.
   This is integration.

   Sometimes I have to pretend to be someone else looking at my life through new eyes so I can see everything fresh and differently. There are so many things in my life that I stop seeing after a period, so I need to see them as someone else might. See them anew.

   Move paintings and decorations around – they get stale.
   Move furniture around – it needs to find a new flow.

   Some things are best where they are but the ones that need to have a mercurial flow to them will tell me. They will pretty much ask me to move them. They have a path and an energy to them that is best served with attentiveness and presence.

   Look at your space.
   What do you really see?
   What works and what doesn't?
   If it doesn't work, ask why and see if you can solve the puzzle.

   Then your space will give you new energy and sometimes even happiness and positivity because you both worked together to make it ‘alive’ again.