Kirstie Sivapalan
I really wanted to write a wee mini-roll post today. For a while now I've been thrashing about in the murky seas of Twitter, now the unenigmatic "X", as well as the pristine, sanitised swimming pool that is Zuck's Threads, so it seemed a good time to do an update. Then PEM hit. I mean,… Continue reading Mini-Roll: PEM, plans and the cut-and-paste Press
Last week and the weekend held two big events for me: M.E. Awareness Week and Eurovision. For the former, I had written a fictional story about living with what is now firmly moderate M.E. I also waded back in to the increasingly scummy waters of the bird site where a lot of the M.E. community… Continue reading Mini-Roll: Social noise and evil genius
It was there the last time she looked. But this time - Nothing. Where the hell did it go? Where did it all go? She stared at the moulded plastic thing on the counter: gleefully orange, punctured with rows of neat little holes in and around its curved bottom. Cauliflower? Something like that but not… Continue reading Drained – a short story for M.E. Awareness Week 2023 (5 min read)
There are three days that exist for me between January and April: my husband's birthday, Imbolc (aka St Bridget's day where I do some hippy crystal-meditationy stuff) and my birthday. The rest of the days are just that: REST. If I do get to do anything outside of these days it's a bonus. I have… Continue reading Mini-Roll 2.0 – What a day this year has been
M.E. Life, politics and social angst The posts below are now an archive. Latest entries for what is now Mini-roll 2.0 can be found in Latest Work. Each entry is usually no more than 2-3 mins to read. What is a mini-roll? Inspired by the UK "mini" Budget, I'm starting a series of "mini" blog… Continue reading Mini-roll
It's about Time Dear M.E. Ally This blog post is for you, and it's about Time. Time as something finite, something precious and something unequally distributed amongst us, especially pwME. (The abbreviation pwME is a shorthand for people with M.E. used on socials which I will be using here). Settle in as it’s long and… Continue reading Dear M.E. Ally
(This is the third part of my M.E story. If you haven’t yet, I’d recommend you read parts one and two, here and here.) In the early part of 2010 I packed my bags and headed to Peru. I had decided to have one last adventure before hitting my forties and quickly found myself 3000… Continue reading ME and the Virus that had never really gone
The Kings Library at the British Library, one of my sacred spaces. Photo: K Sivapalan 2018 Free to use I wrote the poem below twelve days ago now. People with M.E. (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis) will recognise the play on a familiar term we use in my title - PEM, which is short for Post-Exertional Malaise. This… Continue reading P/o/EM
I might as well live in Timbuktu As far as I am - from me to you. I might as well live in San Salvador Confined to sofas and stuck indoors. I might as well live in Kaula Lumpur Dreaming of dancing away til four, Or even til two, but now, I might as well… Continue reading Less travelled
You can gather from the title today is not a good day. Yesterday wasn't great either but today, has definitely been what those of us with mild-moderate M.E call a Bad Day. I wanted to write today. I also wanted to do some housework. I wanted to go to the library and maybe stop off… Continue reading Ode to a Bad Day
Writing and M.E. 