by Virginia Lloyd | Jul 11, 2007 | Blog, Memoir
I love this photo, which I just found on the Slate website, one of my favourite online destinations. It reminds me of the body language of energy-depleted New Yorkers on the subway in the height (depth?) of summer. (Apologies for sponsor’s tag; if I had the...
by Virginia Lloyd | Jul 9, 2007 | Blog, Memoir
My air-conditioner has given up the ghost. Well, it still spurts forth cold air when I stand in front of it, but I can only cope with its blast for a minute before the ear-shattering roar of whatever’s rattling around inside the unit becomes too much to bear. So...
by Virginia Lloyd | Jul 8, 2007 | Blog, Improve your writing, Young Widow's Book of Home Improvement
This is the inevitable but entirely appropriate title to Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami’s deliberation in this weekend’s New York Times on how his love of jazz music helped him to write. As a long-time jazz fan myself, I liked best this anecdote:...
by Virginia Lloyd | Jul 7, 2007 | Blog, Memoir
With the summer well and truly upon us, I have lately spent a little bit of time in Central Park. The other day I settled on a bench by the Reservoir and read The Glass Castle (a wonderful memoir that is a lesson in storytelling, even if its author, Jeannette Walls,...
by Virginia Lloyd | Jul 7, 2007 | Blog, Memoir
Regular readers of this blog might remember my intermittent frustration with trying to play tennis in New York City. While my irritation has mostly been mild and related to either bureaucracy or the low number of available courts, I have also been struck by a few...
by Virginia Lloyd | Jul 3, 2007 | Blog, Memoir
I’ve gone and done it now. I’ve just advised my landlord that I will not be renewing my lease when its 12-month term is up at the end of August. Yikes! Decision-making time came round so quickly; I was trying to put off what to do about hanging on to my...