Tag Archives: home
Summer and Kitchen Dreams
It’s getting hotter here in Dubai. I’m less likely to go and sit outside on the balcony during the day, and the amount of time we spend inside increases by the week. Flu season is upon us, thanks to everyone herding themselves indoors, and it’s about that time when our teensy-weensy studio apartment starts to […]
We just gave up the television
We just gave up our television. I mean, not in the physical sense; there is still a 50-inch plasma filling one partitioned wall of our studio apartment. Just in the digital, service provider sense. This morning, we handed in our decoder and said goodbye to recorded TV as we knew it. This isn’t one of […]
Flying Solo
It’s been a long time since I’ve lived on my own; some five or six years now. Back then, I had a flexible schedule: a blend of university classes, office work and eons of study. I had a townhouse to myself, my own car, and still managed to maintain a gym membership. I shopped, washed, […]
The Next Generation of Travel Writers: Part III
A year ago now, I posted a piece of work written by a talented young man as the culminating task of learning about travel writing. Now, the time has come for my next phase of brilliant young minds to finish up their travel narratives*, and I have even more amazing experiences to share. I have […]
I really love the internet
A young girl sits sprawled across the carpet on her bedroom floor, a pillow under her elbows propping up her chin, and head tilted towards the open pages of the book. It’s her sixth book this week, and another library trip will soon be in order. She’s not too worried though; she has the special […]
Monday Moment: Spot the Accent
Coming from Australia, I have heard many an Australian-Vietnamese accent. A good number of Vietnamese citizens settle in Australia looking for a different, new and possibly better life, and so it was not unusual to hear that familiar twang. Even as our guide introduced himself, I had a feeling that much of his language development, […]
Monday Moment: A Trip Home
I love my Omi. I love everything about her: her strength, vitality, incredible memory, and her smile that runs so deep you can see a piece of her soul. She speaks with such love and care, and the pain and ordeals that she has endured throughout her life have carved the lines that trace around […]
One more year of it
When I went hiking in Sa Pa, I met a writer – a real one. Admittedly, he’d spent the last two years teaching English in rural Japan, something else I would give a limb to do, but his actual field of work and study was to write, rather than teach. He was writing a book. […]
Going Black
Turning to black coffee is not a completely new concept to me. I regualrly swilled sweet, thick and black Turkish coffee while prancing around Istanbul and thoroughly enjoy the cardamom undertones of Arabic coffee, spicy and black. I’ve suffered black coffee from the espresso machine at school just because there are no non-dairy options available […]
Coming home
When I came back post-summer vacation to Dubai from England, and even from Australia, I felt that this place was cramped; that my apartment was too small and that the city was truly stifling. I came from the homes of family and friends, from the life of sprawling supermarkets and full size highways and returned […]
I am sure that chickens hate me
This weekend, I had the pleasantry and excitement of another bout of food poisoning here in Dubai. It’s not uncommon for a meal here to set off an upset stomach, with food handling and sanitation not always under tight control. Every year, we read in the news more and more food places shut down or […]
A summertime heartstring tug
There’s something that’s been tugging at me of late, and it’s not just the standard level of homesickness. I noticed, as we drove in to one of the biggest malls in the world on Friday, at the foot of the tallest building in the world, that all I could think about was wandering along Beach […]
