How do you unwind after a demanding day?
After a demanding day, I unwind by shifting into worlds that absorb me completely. At the moment, that means reading—often across several books at once: Spud, I Capture the Castle, and A Swim in a Pond in the Rain. Each offers a different cadence, and moving between them helps reset my thinking.
Writing is a constant in my life—particularly revisiting and expanding diary entries from the late 1970s—but that sits somewhere between work and reflection. It’s absorbing, but purposeful. I no longer keep a diary. That came to an end in 1990. I’ve been blogging and 1999.
The most complete switch-off comes from cooking. I make layered, slow-built dishes—bean and vegetable casseroles, or complex salads with multiple leaves and textures. There’s something precise but calming in the process: assembling, balancing, letting flavours develop and of course sitting down to eat with my wife.
So for me, unwinding isn’t about doing nothing—it’s about moving into depth, rhythm, and absorption in a different form.
I also enjoy the slower anticipation of television, watching Outlander episode by episode. That sense of waiting, rather than binge-watching, becomes part of my relaxation. I’d there’s something engaging on at our bijou cinema The Depot we may well go there.
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