2024 Grateful 52

2024 Grateful 1: Api nyu ia

I’m not a great one for affirmations. I recognise their merit, I do. I know that I’m more likely to believe something if I hear

Sign on a stand in the grounds of a hotel reading Marine Wing Support Squadron 33 Annual Ball. Pacific Ballroom.

2024 Grateful 2: The missing [wo]man table

I didn’t get to do much by way of shortening my bucket list this year. Truth be told, I’m thinking of following comedian Ardal O’Hanlon

Black dog with white chest sitting upright between two white pillars on the terrace of a house. Clock on the wall. Trees on either side. Dog is looking straight at the camera

2024 Grateful 3: On those days

Walking through the shopping centre, a kids’ book catches my eye. The title looms large. JIM. Underneath is written: káprázatos karácsonya. In English, Jim’s Spectacular

Crows flying against a blue sky with geese sitting atop a green field - a row of trees on the horizon

2024 Grateful 4: Grounding

I have an aversion to gadgets, to things that will do things for me. Fancy wine openers. Expensive fruit peelers. Electric dough makers. I like

Window in a house. At night. Lit up. Decorated for Christnas with the number 1 prominently displayed

2024 Grateful 5: Advent windows

The village has a lovely tradition where 24 houses volunteer to dress their windows during Advent. Each is assigned a date and at 5 pm

Outstretched hand lighting candles in a church

2024 Grateful 6: In memory

Suicide is one of life’s unfathomable mysteries, one you have to go through yourself to fully understand. And then it’s too late. The World Health

2024 Grateful 7: Austerity and Black Friday

Austerity. I had to look it up. It’s one of those words I thought I understood. I used to know it in a certain context,

The attic, bathed in a gentle light filtering through a small window, is cluttered with a multitude of boxes, each likely containing memories and relics of years gone by. An old wooden chair sits amidst a sea of boxes, papers, and photographs that seem to spill out of their containers. The scene evokes a strong sense of nostalgia and the passage of time, as the attic holds onto fragments of the past that have been stored away, perhaps forgotten but preserved in this dusty upper chamber of the house.

2024 Grateful 8: Döstädning

I came to Hungary with two suitcases and two pictures. What happened? How did I accumulate so much stuff? Where did it all come from?

Statue of a monk kneeling in prayer hold out a cup - set beside a river

2024 Grateful 9: Rehearsing dread and practising fear

As I looked across to the other lane on the A5 travelling from Slovenia back to Hungary, something struck me. A truck had jackknifed at

2024 Grateful 10: Gloop or gastro?

Way back in the first century AD, a Roman gourmand by the name of Apicius sat us all at a rocky table when he declared

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