Monday 19 September 2016

30: A Think Piece

  • 30 thinkpieces to write by the time you're 30
  • Adulting: You're Doing It Wrong 

  • 29 Times Your Friends Will Stand By You (And 1 They Won't) 
  • 30 Reasons You Still Haven't Published A Book: She Saw The Publishing Industry And You Won't Believe What Happened Next
  • What To Do When Knitting is No Longer Cute Or Ironic (Hats!)
  • 27 Cities To Visit In By The Time You're 30 (And 3 To Live In) 
  • A Degree Is Not A Prophesy: Why University Matters, But Not THAT Much
  • 30 Cats To Hug By The Time You're 30

  • Everyone says It Gets Better After 30... But Does It? An Investigation. 
  • 30 #Cool #Tweets For #BirthdayBitches
  • When I Turn 30, I'm Giving Up #Filters For Good
  • Here's 20 Reasons Why Selfies Were The Best Thing About My 20s
  • 30 Nights Out You've Enjoyed, But Can't Remember 

  • Does it Matter That I'm 30 and I Haven't Kissed 30 Men? 
  • You'll Want These 30 Etsy Sellers to Paint a Portrait for Your Attic 
  • Peaches on the Beach: Birthday Picnic Ideas 
  • 30 Teenagers who are More Successful Than You'll Ever Be
  • Lit-stergram and Other Neolisms You Won't Understand 
  • We Found It: The Perfect Wine To Drown the Dawning Awareness of Your Own Mortality 
  • The 90s Are Back: Why You're Not Too Old To Wear That A Second Time
  • How To Style That Silver Streak 
  • The Real Reason Why All Your Friends Have It Together (And You Don't) 
  • 30 People To Delete From Facebook
  • Moisturiser: A Love Story
  • Unlocking The Wisdom of The Ancients (Now That You Are One)

Tuesday 21 June 2016

Convoy to Calais



"They've closed Dover," I said. "And this guy's tweeted that he and his daughter are being held by the cops in Calais." The ferry shuddered a bit and I put down my bad coffee. I refreshed Twitter.
"Do you think they'll stop us when we get off the ferry?"
"I don't know."

I tried to picture what I would say to a French cop. Je vais sur un vin croisière. Désolé, je ne parle pas très bien français. 

"I'm gonna tweet the organiser - wait, no, do you reckon the cops'll be watching the hashtag? I'll use this other account. Wait, how tech savvy are cops? I mean if they visited the website and did a whois lookup?"
"If you were a cop, how tech savvy would you be?"
"Okay. So we can't tweet. Okay."




The trip was booked under my sister-in-law's name. She couldn't make it, last minute. They were checking the lead traveller's names, not number plates.
I heard the goods we donated got through. So that's good. Everything had been dropped off in advance at central locations.


We put our thumbprints on a map of the world, showing where we'd come from, how far we'd travelled to show we cared.

One of the refugees said, they didn't want any journalists writing any more stories. They wanted things to change. They wanted the chance at having a life.
Another refugee said, "I'm 22. The things I've seen in the past two years in Europe... the camp is so much better than a war zone."
The camp was huge. It went on and on. They call it the Jungle.


About the Jungle.
About the Convoy to Calais.
About the blockade at Dover.
Read more about, or donate to Care4Calais.

How do you start a blog post?

"I'm sorry I haven't blogged in a while, but."