I've got your back
Blogpost
I've got your back
By Gita Bapat Wednesday 9th September 2026
I reiterate: this is not supposed to be a misery memoir but this thing is on my overthinking mind and I need to park it somewhere. I have two Council Committee sessions this evening and I
20 years on
Gita Bapat
Wednesday 2nd September 2026
Did he know that I was there by his bedside? They say that your hearing is the last sense to go so I kept talking, just in case, but he didn’t answer and then, when we’d all stepped out, deliberating whether to
A thing happened and it has broken my heart a bit
I need to write about what happened in order to file it away for posterity. There will eventually be a separate blog post of leadership lessons or somesuch but this is about the core of what happened and how I feel now. I am sad and angry.
You'll
Why do big corporations always ruin things?
Medivet asked about my recent experience, so I told them. I don't think they would really want me to copy my review and post it on Google. Not really.
"I first registered with The Laurels in 2022 on my return from Hong Kong. I did not want
Why is it so easy to throw us under a bus?
I emailed my (now Labour) MP this morning. Here is the body of my message:
Dear Liam,
I hope you’re well.
I was on our LibDem stand in Beckenham yesterday and at one point found myself standing up for you as our MP when a visitor to our stall
Life in the old(er) dogs yet
This is Thomas (on the right I think) and Bessie.
Both ex-show and ex-breeding dogs, they'd come to the end of their working life and were adopted by B, who has rehomed lots of show-line labradors. Tom is now 9.5 years old and Bess
Remembering my mum today
It's the 6th anniversary of her death today, and I'm remembering how I was sitting on my Discovery Bay sofa working my way through the whole series of Friends on my laptop when the email came in from the Doctor at the Dignity Lifestyle Resort to
Braised beef cheeks
On evenings like this week's, when I've come in from the cold and wet, I long to put my bum up against the AGA to warm up. My modern Beckenham kitchen isn't quite as comforting as the cosy Norfolk one, however.
I have wanted
Sarah Leonard
I knew she'd been ill and whenever I walked Fergus past her house, a couple of evenings a week, and saw the front bedroom light always on, I wondered how she was doing. Yesterday I actually bothered to do a search and found her obituary.
Thank you for
You have to develop resilience when you're canvassing
I've just come in from a quick canvassing session, where we attempted to survey local residents on their priorities and worries for the local area. If you don't know about people's concerns, you can't address them, right?
One door was opened by
Good for my health
Well, will you look at that?! Is it a coincidence that this notification from my phone Health app came exactly 9 days after I left Facebook and Instagram?
Scientifically speaking, there will be unisolated variables, but what a strong indication that being part of Meta was not doing me any