August 2025
Whirlwind and breathless report to Greco coming up on a summer of love in the UK, a time of surprise, sweetness and optimism. Leaving home and abandoning Mandala just as the water pump broke, the crisis averted by Claudia, Bärbel and the neighbourhood plumber. Too much or too little water has been a theme this year.
After pyjama partying with Sian and Jools and Fennel and Sara, I joined the Sexological Bodywork training in the Town Hall in Hebden Bridge with Kian, Julian and Nicola. There’s something about the pride flags everywhere, our students feel like they’re safe and welcome. We have a brilliant cohort this year and in module 4, we tackle anatomy and mapping and begin practice sessions, letting the work impact us profoundly. We want more Sexological Bodyworkers in the world .
Oh and then there’s meeting all the friends, what a sociable time. Chintan, Madhuri, Debbie & John and Ian in the returns to the valley, John Knight’s 70th in Liverpool with all the good people, staying with Christina Bebbington and enjoying celebrations and Couples Therapy. And back in Manchester with Caroline, Rebecca, going into a tax tunnel, seeing Materialists with Becky and Zena, drinking quickly with Heidi and alison purely for old times sake. And walks in the park with Bela.
I’m still on a high from TabooFest with fellow erotic travellers and kinksters. Still touched by our time together at Earth Spirit in Glastonbury, to feel the possibility for this work of openness and kinky kindness. It’s such an honour to be a part of it, creating new possibilities for optimism. The subtlety of shifts, in how I see myself and how I’m relating is dawning, and I’m still high on the touch and closeness I experienced. I LOVED teaching my geeky baby chilli workshops on Switch It and Creative Kinky Touch, stepping back in as a teacher after a couple of years of being overwhelmed by paint, plumbing and being Madame in another realm.
Seeing my family in Manchester is so good, made more bittersweet by my mums ruby wedding anniversary, with her husband now in a nursing home. As I leave I wonder if I’ll see them again, so there’s a specialness to trips to a garden centre and small supports for each other. Seeing my mum adjust to the first time of living alone at 90 after being a carer for someone with dementia is a relief. I lived alone for more than 15 years and I think she’s beginning to understand the freedom despite her despair at my absence in finding a husband.
And now I’ve just got back to collective living. More missives from Mandala will no doubt follow but for now I’m back to laundry and putting the cups on the right places on the shelves. Just so. Just like my mum. Paul Sperring is here and I’m heading to the beach to finish my book - The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy -before the wheels of industry start turning again next week.
