Darling Paloma Something told me it was not going to be straight forward. Why? I’m still not sure but maybe because everything leading up to the day had gone so well.So what can I tell you, my beautiful daughter? That the day you were born was the warmest day of the year? That there wasn’tContinue reading “28th June 2020”
Author Archives: Simon Astaire
22nd June 2020
Darling Paloma, What news can I tell you today? Well, let’s start that it is all set for you to join us on Thursday at around lunchtime. I have to admit, though with the date looming, it makes me nervous to just write that down. The scan at the end of last week was perfectlyContinue reading “22nd June 2020”
17th June 2020
June 15th 2020
Darling Paloma, You may know the news by now, but your due date is delayed by a week. Everything was planned for this coming Friday, but the doctor has thought it better that you stay where you are to help build up your lungs and help avoid the chance of jaundice. Whatever you’re told inContinue reading “June 15th 2020”
June 9th 2020
Darling Paloma I returned to my old school the other day. Yes, that’s how desperate things have become. I forgot how close it is to our home. We, of course, drove and with the roads still relatively empty, it took only twenty-five minutes to get there. If only I were able to drive in myContinue reading “June 9th 2020”
6th June 2020
Darling Paloma, Since I last wrote to you, so much has happened. I have had a birthday. It was on Wednesday, and it was a lovely day. A picnic at the Oxford University Parks with your mum under a willow tree. Dinner with your brother and his girlfriend back in London. Yes, I am aContinue reading “6th June 2020”
29th May 2020
Darling Paloma, Your mother went for another scan yesterday. You’ll know this, of course, as you were rudely disturbed and grew a little bothered. But who can blame you? There you were, curled up in the warmth of your mother’s tummy, and this contraption (it’s a scanning device by the way!) was being rolled overContinue reading “29th May 2020”
25th May 2020
Darling Paloma, Paula, who makes my morning coffee and greets me every day with the kindest of smiles, handed me the recipe to a cocktail called Paloma. It is a tequila-based mixed with lime juice and pink grapefruit soda: Sounds delicious. And perhaps there’s a clue to your personality in its formula. My favourite barContinue reading “25th May 2020”
21st May 2020
Darling Paloma, ‘What lies ahead? I was full of questions yesterday. Questions like as an older man, will I have the strength and calmness to be a good father? What type of world are we bringing you into, my sweet daughter? Was it always planned for you to be born during these days? A wiseContinue reading “21st May 2020”
17th May 2020
Darling Paloma, Well, the news on the pregnancy front, which of course you would know is that you are rotating from the breech position. It means that you were positioned heads up in your mother’s uterus with your feet pointing towards the birth canal. Now you have turned halfway. So in layman’s terms, your headContinue reading “17th May 2020”
May 13th 2020
Darling Paloma, How strange it is to be walking on the streets which you know so well but now seems so unfamiliar. It was good to see the vagrant again. If I don’t see familiar faces after a few days, I begin to worry. I haven’t seen the gentleman in the tweed suit for overContinue reading “May 13th 2020”
11th May 2020
Darling Paloma, I am not sure I understood what the Prime Minister was telling us yesterday. He addressed the nation early evening. It was not live, as expected, but pre-recorded. The afternoon light was still glinting through the windows in the background. A live performance would have given it more focus or perhaps intensity. Instead,Continue reading “11th May 2020”
8th May 2020
Darling Paloma, I took out an old radio today and started to fiddle about looking for a station to fit my mood. I hadn’t switched on this radio since my school days when it was my passkey to an outside world. It was yet another rediscovery during lockdown. I didn’t realise how much I missedContinue reading “8th May 2020”
6th May 2020
Darling Paloma, It seems most people are ” going spare” waiting for the first phase of the lockdown exit to begin. As I stepped on to the street, I watched someone angrily putting on her black semi-disposable nitrile grip gloves finger by finger. She spouted that the incompetent British Government didn’t know what the hellContinue reading “6th May 2020”
