Diary of a first-time mum: A bedtime story not so restful
It is 10pm and I am tucked up in bed, eager for sleep before another early morning alarm call from my toddler.
Opinion
Catherine Deveney: Like poppies, the miracle of reconciliation can follow the most heartbreaking loss
I find myself wondering what the very first words were that Georges Salines and Azdyne Amimour spoke to one another when they first met in a café in the Bastille area of Paris.
Madeleine Marcella-Hood: Fashioning an ethical approach is a big task for the clothing industry
As we enter 2020, not only a new year but indeed a new decade, our minds might be focused on new beginnings.
Alex Bell: As two sides engage in the constitutional tango, the question is, which one is blind?
Al Pacino has been nominated for an Oscar for his turn as Jimmy Hoffa in the film The Irishman.
James Millar: Listening to the tune the public is singing is how politicians will glimpse the true face behind the mask
Since former Home Secretary Alan Johnson was revealed to be a participant in ITV’s Saturday night madhouse The Masked Singer, the Westminster set has been forced to pay attention to this utterly bizarre show.
Andy Skinner: Ross County have work to do
Ross County have produced a mixed bag this season but the Staggies will take encouragement from their return to the Premiership.
David Knight: I am nothing but a weirdo misfit – put me in charge of the country
I might apply for a job with Dominic Cummings - chief mover and shaker behind Boris Johnson - who is creating a phalanx of free thinkers within 10 Downing Street.
Kathleen Robertson: All in the mind – why new year’s resolutions are better for being a little self-centred
New Year’s resolutions - we all make them and gradually we fall off the proverbial wagon.
Chris Deerin: Fancy that, being a grown-up Artful Dodger with Hasidic leanings and a Sex Pistols fixation is rather fun after all
I have friends who leap, screeching with joy, whenever the opportunity to don fancy dress presents itself.
Angus Peter Campbell: Oliver Cromwell, the dangerous streets of Inverness and the magical hold of folk memory
A friend of mine left Wick for the bright lights of London in the 1960s, but before he headed south to where the streets were paved with gold, he called in to let his granny know.
Lindsay Razaq: While many people think of 13 as unlucky I’ve always counted it worthy of celebration
I like the number 13. Not because I relish putting superstitions to the test, although my Christmas tree is still up post-Twelfth Night for the second year in a row (cut me some slack, we only got back from visiting relatives in Newcastle on Sunday afternoon).
Miles Mack: Homeopathic medicine… The jury is still out
As a young child I remember being taken to see a kindly, grey-haired doctor called Dr McGowan to be treated for asthma.
David Knight: Teachers seem like Spitfire pilots thrown into the new Battle of Britain in schools
Even the numbskulls in our mathematics class knew the problem we were facing was going to end badly.
The Flying Pigs: Right royally entertained by a free panto trip and folks’ rough as onything picters
Kevin Cash – money-saving expert and king of the grips
Catherine Deveney: There is a comfort in marking a chapter of the old year as it heralds a start of the new
Do you believe in Richard Dawkins?
Alex Bell: We have built a sense of nationhood around the idea of not being England
It is 2020, 700 years since the Declaration of Arbroath was signed, asserting Scottish identity as a nation and a people.
Iain Maciver: I asked tradesmen about ideas for my pelvic floor – one didn’t even know I was pregnant
This is the best time of year to be a columnist for The Press and Journal. Everybody else is having to go out to their workplaces, but I can work from home. My cousin Ann said to me the other day that she suspected I was sometimes at my computer in my dressing gown. As if.
Paul Third: These are dark and worrying times at Caledonian Stadium
It does feel as if there is more than promotion at stake for Caley Thistle as they head into 2020.
David Knight: Children on flights send you flipping mad? Spare a thought for the poor parents
It's festive season so I cannot wait to fly off on my holidays to escape it all.
Catherine Deveney: Is there any judgment quite so self-righteously vicious as religious judgment?
When you are depressed, there can be something alienating about other people’s festivities, especially at Christmas.
Jamie Durent: Tokyo 2020 coming firmly into focus for north athletes
With the turn of the year approaching, cue headlines about 2020 vision as the Tokyo Olympics come into view.
David Knight: It is time for another referendum on independence – oh no it isn’t
Oh, the delicious irony of it all: I had just taken my seat to enjoy a pantomime as general election voting was in full swing.
Jim Hunter: There have been very few truly epoch-making general elections – but this may yet turn out to be one of them
Many elections, usually in their immediate aftermath, are described as historic or epoch-making – terms applied widely to Boris Johnson’s victory of last week.
Len Ironside: We need to start caring about others again
Where is our sense of community?
David Knight: Mad Max reminds us showing humanity to others is essential to a life worth living
I feel I’ve got to know someone really well in recent months, although we have never actually met face to face.
The Flying Pigs: Who says politics is a pain? Now, a knee square in the chuckies – that’s painful
Yesterday the nation woke up, scratched its head and said: “Fit the hell…?” Today we share the results of our own, in-depth exit poll from some of the constituencies of the north-east.
Iain Maciver: Life shouldn’t be harder because we are living north o’ the Braes o’ Killiecrankie
Holidays are coming, holidays are coming.
Tom Peterkin: The battle between the devil and the deep blue sea
“We live on an island of 60 million people yet this election has come down to a choice between these two,” was how one world-weary member of the Holyrood press corps characterised tomorrow’s vote.
David Ross:Young face taxation without representation
Two days till the most important election in generations.
Lindsay Razaq: Living more sustainably food for thought amid familiar excesses of festive season
One of the things I remember vividly about Christmases at my grandparents’ house as a child is the recycled wrapping paper.
James Bream: There’s more to inflation than balloons
What a weekend – it was time to put up the Christmas tree and soak up the explosive sensory feelings of the festive season.
David Knight: Failing to remember can risk landing you in situations you won’t forget in a hurry
It reminded me of the moment in I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here! when the Dingo Dollar Challenge shutter came crashing down after players failed a task.