Brianna Parkins

Brianna Parkins

Contributor

Brianna Parkins is an Irish Times columnist.

My grandad’s hobbies are listening to the Dubliners and complaining about still being alive

Grandad would tell me to come home soon because he didn’t ‘have long left’. It worked. I went home to Sydney every year

I’ve promised to give a speech, but am freaking out. You see, I’m a big thick

This was supposed to be the year I would slow down, say no to things

I miss Ireland for many reasons, but one is the lack of pressure to ‘get fit’

Sydney is and has always been a vain city, and the heat for nine months of the year means there is nowhere to hide

Do I look like a soft target? Do I give off the sad vibes of a person who can be inconvenienced?

A friend told me I had spent too long in Ireland and was ‘afraid of not being seen as sound’

Nothing really terrible can happen to you while having a little sit-down. With a biscuit

Work, especially if you love what you do, will be stressful. It will challenge your abilities daily. At least let me do it in a chair with a good back

Brianna Parkins: People who get up early in the morning for no reason are a menace to society

Getting up and journaling at 6am is seen as self-discipline, but writing things in a diary at 2am is a cry for help

Apartments with fewer windows sound okay, until you live in one

We might accept new apartment standards if the minister or developers traded in their homes to rent one

I can never make up for years on less money than I should. But I can advise young women to learn from my mistakes

After asking for more money early in my career, I was gaslit into thinking I was just lucky to be there

I wanted to slip her a note, warning against saying ‘yes’ to his marriage proposal

I like helping people, but I’d be glad to pass people’s idiotic questions over to artificial intelligence

I am quite good with money. I know exactly how to spend it all

Sacrificing life’s small joys to save cash is hard when you’re not sure it will be enough to get you the most modest of homes

Flying Ryanair, smoking on holiday and other things I’ll keep doing even though I shouldn’t

TikTok is awash with people posting about ‘propaganda’ they ‘won’t fall for’ - but here’s my list of things I know I will fall for, time and time again

Brianna Parkins: I envy Irish childhoods and the special confidence Irish children seem to have

Like many emigrants, we want our kids to be Irish but worry Ireland won’t be able to support them

‘I am Alan f***ing Sugar’: I marvel at my business acumen on DoneDeal

I once convinced my partner to drive to a random person’s shed in Monaghan to buy a €50 piece of furniture

Moving to Ireland helped me understand my mother, her peculiarities and weird secrecy

Love in Irish families is more of a doing word than a saying one

Being a woman on TV: One viewer described my teeth as ‘tea-stained’

Most emails I get are not about the quality of my journalism, but what I wear and the state of my hair

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