Latest Posts

  • The truth about racism in Wales

    When I moved to Cardiff in 2003, it was to work in an office at the bottom end of Bute Street, the main artery connecting the city centre to the waterfront. I’d heard much about Tiger Bay, the cultural melting pot that had bubbled away for hundreds of years thanks to immigration into the city’s…

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  • Remember – A note from Spring 2020

    Dear Sara, Remember Easter Sunday, alone on a hilltop overlooking the city. Birdsong drowning out the sound of the very occasional car. A city that is sun-drenched and cloudless. Eerily quiet, but far from at peace. The famous white cocktail sticks of the Millennium Stadium now mark a field hospital. Remember thinking of the people…

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  • When this is all over

    Am I the only one starting most of my sentences with the words “when this is all over”? It’s day 13 of lockdown for my son and me after he developed a fever two weekends ago. It feels like a lifetime since he woke up complaining of feeling hot and coughing. I’m glad to report…

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  • Calais in the time of Coronavirus: Stories from the front line of the refugee crisis

      Aneta Kawecka is a Polish-born ethical fashion stylist now based in Paris, France. She is a wonderful human being I am proud to call a friend.  Aneta has just returned from her fourth stint volunteering with the Refugee Community Kitchen in Calais. This time, Coronavirus cut short her volunteering. We were talking about the…

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  • Festivals, Socrates and me

    As you read this, I will be luxuriating in a birthday hot tub, knocking back cheap fizz, encrusted in glitter and hairspray. Where will I be lapping up such luxuries? At a spa resort before a night on the town, perhaps? Err, no. You will find me at Green Man, that most bucolic of all…

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  • The mixtape is dead. Long live the mixtape!

    It all started with Lee Davies*, on our annual church coach trip to the seaside, sometime in the early 90s. “Here, have a listen to this”, he enthusiastically commanded, shoving a pair of scratchy foam Walkman headphones onto my ringleted ten-year-old head. Lee was two years older than me, friends with my cousin, and my…

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  • On finding my green fingers…

    This column first appeared in The Western Mail on Saturday 22nd June 2019. As a kid, I’d watch my parents spend hours making up hanging baskets together. They’d sit on the patio, tag teaming as they painstakingly planted their floral masterpieces. I remember pansies, primroses and lobelias, vibrant reds and vivid greens, bursting violently from…

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  • Harder now that it’s over: An open letter to Ryan Adams

    Dear Ryan, I’m not in the habit of writing open letters to famous singer-songwriters who will never read them. But I’ve been feeling so angry, and disappointed, today. Actually, disappointed seems too weak a word for what I feel right now. So I had to write this just to empty the feelings from my head,…

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  • The seven deadly sins of online dating

    Here’s a little something I wrote for the Western Mail magazine on the seven deadly sins of online dating. Thanks to all my equally permanently perturbed female friends who chipped in anecdotes and frustrations that helped with this one. Y’all know who you are. Don’t stop believin’ kids!

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  • On breaking up with my phone…

    It’s the longest relationship I’ve ever had. Whether it’s been a healthy relationship is another thing. But my iPhone has been a prominent feature of my life for 10 years now. To put that into perspective, in my early twenties I entered into a marriage that lasted two years. My longest relationship with a man…

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About this blog

About

Hello. I’m Sara. This site is home to my writing for the Western Mail, a newspaper kind enough to publish my internal ramblechats. In 2022 I was named Wales Media Awards Columnist of The Year for this column. Madness. You’ll find me spaffing opinions on feminism, inequality, festivals, tech, art and whatever else pops into my head at 3am the day before deadline. There’s also bonus content, when the muse takes me (WHERE IS SHE TAKING ME? I DIDN’T ORDER THIS CAB! Etc…).

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