I’m back… kinda — Hey Medium Fam. I’ve missed you all, and I’m not really 100% back yet, but I’m getting there slowly. I’m easing my toes into the scorching onsen that is ‘writing’. You know, it burns your soul in a way that is both blissful and agonising. So to start off, here…

Reflections on 11 years in a toxic sludge police culture — Why I’m writing this article I don’t often talk about policing in a public forum like this. And I’ve been absent from Medium — I’ve been sick. Most cops I know can relate to rarely sharing anything online about our work. Let alone about our incredibly fucked up work culture. I know that so many…

The winner of 4 pet portraits is… — This competition was a small one, and from entries on beloved pets that were adopted from awful situations and lived amazing lives, and all of the entries were wonderful. I know it’s a cliché to say, but it was SO hard to choose. In the end after a very delayed…

Back to being depressed and tired all the time — I was so inspired by an article I read back in October by James Warwick, exploring 24 hours without his disability, that I followed suit and wrote my own. As two people with very different disabilities, the things we envisioned doing in those 24 hours were fairly different. But I…

Help me decide if it’s a good or bad thing — When I was younger, I was terrified of family dying. I truly thought that every year would be my gran’s last, after she had her first stroke. And then she had her second stroke. 20+ years on and she’s still here, I should get to see her this Christmas if…

Thank my dad ☺️ — 👋 Hello everyone! Firstly thank you so much for your amazing stories, to all of our competition entrants so far: Laura Lind ▪️ Sharing Randomly ▪ Matthew B. Johnson ▪️ 🌈LIFE LESSON ▪️ Joyce O'Day ▪️ Courtney Capone ▪️ Sally Prag ▪️ Robert Ralph ▪️ Jane Grows Garden Rooms (Jane Frost) ▪️ Nicole…

He’s okay, by the way — As I write this, it’s 5.00 am on Thursday 28 October 2021. My Dad is in hospital He is reclined on the barouche with his eyes closed, hands cupped together on his chest. The thin white hospital blanket covers him. Supplying some modesty, thankfully. I’m sitting next to him, writing this on my laptop as he drifts in and out of sleep. Thankfully sleep is all he’s…

The article that embodies the purpose of this publication — I just read this ‘When a Rescue Animal Chooses You’, and published it in this publication. Thank you Matthew B. Johnson for this wonderful article, leading to a super long comment that I decided to publish as my own piece. Your story was so touching that my highlighter broke and…