Tuesday 12 February 2008

I want to be alone

"M y month without alcohol went so well that I finished early". I love this opening line from this article by Tim Dowling if only Lent were that simple!

And then this by Lucy Mangan"The first time I watched Papillon, I couldn't understand it at all. This, it turned out during prolonged discussion with my parents later, was because I hadn't appreciated that solitary confinement was supposed to be a punishment. I thought he was a favoured prisoner in receipt of special privileges. That's the misanthropic mindset for you, in a nutshell."
A long time ago I would take students on school trips to the West Coast of Scotland near Loch Awe, one day we took the minibus down a dirt track to get to a beach where the kids could let off some steam. Close by was a corrugated tin shack and I have not stopped wishing/thinking about what it would be like to live there for a year. I would love to see how I would cope with that level of isolation. I have lived in London for 25 years having previously lived in the countryside as a child, and part of me would love to go back. I guess I will have to make do with a week in Wales this April instead.

1 comment:

Liberty London Girl said...

Is it odd that I have fantastised about being a nun? Preferably one of those medieval ones that didn't have to talk to anyone, and wore wimples. There is something very forbidden and appealing about retreating from the world LLG xx