My son has a plastic turtle night light that he keeps on his bedside table. It projects an underwater effect onto the walls and ceiling of his bedroom and plays ocean sounds. He originally bought it for me for my birthday, but 5 minutes after I'd opened the box, he claimed it as his. 5 weeks ago, the batteries started to run out on the turtle. Sometimes the ocean sounds didn't play, or the underwater effect didn't project properly. Sometimes, the turtle didn't even switch on. "It needs a new battery", I told my son. "I'll have to go to [...]

I bought a plant last year. When I bought it, it was 3 times bigger, with lots and lots of bright green, thriving leaves. I put it in my bathroom. Slowly, however, it started to die. I didn't know why. I figured that I had been overwatering it, so I gave it less. Nothing changed. I moved it from one end of the room to another—maybe it was too near the radiator? Nothing changed. In fact, its leaves started to curl up and go brown. After several months, the leaves began to drop off, and finally 4 dry stalks were [...]

When you were a kid, did you ever play the game, Guess Who? You know, the 1980’s mystery face game where each player chooses a person and then using yes or no questions, they try to figure out the other player’s person? Turns out, the game still exists! I've been playing it with my son recently and it's been a total blast from the past. Nothing much has changed with the game. The people are still mostly the same. The format is still the same. The rules are still the same. And yet I've noticed the questions my son has been asking me about my "person" are [...]

Every morning and evening, after I've fed Lily, my cat, I leave the house and walk 100 metres across the garden to the garage. I open the garage door and walk to the bin store in the corner and put the empty cat food pouch in the bin. Every morning and evening, after I've fed Lily, my cat, I look down at the empty cat food pouch in my hand and think, "I can't be fucking arsed to walk 100 metres across the garden to the garage, to then have to open the garage door and walk to the bin store in the corner [...]

I'm standing in the living room of the old, rambling farmhouse we've just finished renovating. One hand on my hip, the other cupping my chin with my thumb and index finger, I hesitantly scan the room. "Are there just way too many types of wood in this room?" I ask my mother-in-law. She is standing to the right of me and watches, as I nod towards the oak wooden beams and then the pine floor and then the walnut coffee table and then the new dining chairs with the ash legs. "No", she replies in her direct and confident German [...]