Treat others as you would want to be treated yourself - is a saying I've always kept in mind. Recently I was listening to a radio item when I learnt that variations of this wise motto have Olympic...

No more hour-long phone calls. Time’s up! for sharing our honest feelings, having that listening ear and getting good advice. A cuppa together, but a memory. And I’ll likely never again have that...

The idea to have curtains in my bedroom first came to me back in January. I spent a couple of weeks casually debating with myself if curtains would allow me to roll up the blinds and have the two...

On an evening stroll around Belsize Village, I chanced upon such a beauty that I instantly fell in lust. A sleek two-seater black Ferrari, translated in my imagination to a regal panther pre-pounce,...

Call me behind time, but I only just watched the 2020 Oscar winning Nomadland. What I love about this beautifully scripted and superbly filmed movie is how it shows the power of a kind community to...

I’m a hyper local lass. It could be a habit left over from lockdowns, but truth is everything I need is in Belsize Park or Hampstead or on the Finchley Road. In the spring and summertime, I might...

Perhaps like me you were coughing through the last days of 2023 and as soon as Secret Santa had been played out, you found yourself several films and series later at New Year’s Eve with a...

At Christmas time I often think about people who would like to celebrate but can’t. Many of us experienced that when Christmas 2020 was cancelled, but this year, as usual, families and friends will...

This Christmas, I might do something different and buy a book prescription as a gift for a friend or relative. Mostly I’m inspired because I recently met book curator and bibliotherapist Bijal Shah...

I’ve just recovered from an inflammation which forced me to spend a week in bed and only go out for food essentials, despite the early October t-shirt weather which I really wanted to be in. I was...

Oftentimes I deal with a situation which appears to be bad by entitling it as: A Blessing in Disguise. As I’ve always been a chaser of blessings, the moment trouble appears I’m checking out its...

On any morning of the week, except my day(s) of rest, the house moth on my wall will spy me sitting at my laptop, working in pyjamas. If I’m after a shower I could have my hair wrapped in a towel...

In our winter 2021 edition of In The Square, I featured an interview with the wonderful musician Mo Foster who lived most of his life in Belsize Village. On 3 July this year Mo passed. I went to...

Life is better when we live with concern for others and choose to be helpful. In the act of giving we distract ourselves from personal problems and encourage physiological brain changes linked to...

It’s almost two years since I first had the idea for a local print magazine for Belsize Park. I was on one of those going-nowhere lockdown walks when I chanced upon a TV celebrity comedian and after...

Recently I spent an entire day and evening in my pyjamas on my bed and couch, and I wasn’t unwell. I listened to the radio, watched two films, read some and ate - that’s all. It was a Saturday so I...

February was a tough one. We all expected low temperatures and high costs, but added to our personal challenges, war wears on, we’ve had a mammoth earthquake, essential services have been on strike...

Is there an implicit consensus for when we should stop saying Happy New Year to each other? As I make the next edition of In The Square, which should be ready as our cherry trees blossom, I’m still...

I think domestic chores come around too fast. Saturday is my must-do day to put on a wash, hoover, wipe surfaces with the sprays stashed under the sink, and flit around my flat with a magnetic...

The usual dilemma is what to buy people for Christmas. My problem is how to match the lovely potential gifts I find at December arts and craft fairs to them that are in my life. Some might say that...

On the night that the clocks went back, and I was thinking about how it would be dark before my teatime, I realised that I needed a new hobby. The jigsaw puzzles and bread making that had carried me...