In London, I lived for five years in a tiny bedsit with no couch and a single bed. There was no room for a table, either for dining or work; the obliging landlord installed a small benchtop that I used for both. When eating, I lifted my laptop to its…

I went into my office for the first time in 18 months. The university set up a mandatory ‘return to work’ Moodle course last summer, but the requirement to work from home was only lifted on 1 September. It was a warm, sunny day, possibly the last warm, sunny day…

When I first arrived in Glasgow in the summer of 2017 – an unusually hot summer for Scotland – I spent my lunch breaks wandering the streets around the university department where I now worked. Transplanted from rural Australia to lodgings in north London to an ex-council flat in Maryhill…

The trains are getting busier, another sign of ‘normal’ life resuming. Since January, I’ve been catching an off-peak train from Glasgow to Edinburgh on Fridays to see Bear. Back in winter, I sometimes had a carriage to myself. Now, every table is occupied by a single person, a couple or…