Election 2012
For the first time in almost a decade, I pulled an all-nighter. I don’t always stay up to watch live election coverage, but as I contemplate starting a new life back in my home country again, I guess I felt particularly invested. I have no interest in talking about my views, nor do I have … Continue reading
Culzean Castle
When Bean moved jobs last summer, his colleagues gave him membership to the National Trust for Scotland as a parting gift. Every property in their care from castles and gardens to ruins and abbeys is now free for us to visit as often as we like for a whole year. We’ve explored the properties close … Continue reading
Starry : A Tale of Two Nights
One night, I walked the dry river bed out across the desert and to the water’s edge. During the day it is a popular draw in the region, full of locals and tourists; now it is completely empty. The flicker of a bonfire miles away is the only sign of human habitation. I slip into … Continue reading
Pride & Conceit
Gryffindor. District 12. Team Jacob. Miranda. Carrie. Charlotte. People identify with pretend. They just do. And while I am as guilty as anyone of obsessive online quizzes, daydreamy adventures, and entirely delusional fantasies involving crossbows and laser sights while shopping for tinned beans, mine are, more often than not, a little old school. The world … Continue reading
Maps & Money
So the sheer size (and buying power) of my home nation is almost impossible for other people to get their heads around. And I can’t really blame them. But behold: a map of the US – each state is labelled with a nation that has a comparable GDP. Now, do take it with a grain … Continue reading
Kids are the same everywhere
So I’m back in the land of the living. And I figure it’s fitting to pay homage to a kid who really knows how to live. This kid? He lives on the side of a dusty highway. His mom boils corn on the cob in old steel barrels to sell to passing cars (like the … Continue reading
cookies & a competition
Lurgy has struck our house like putrid lightning. Sorry for the delay in my otherwise thrilling travelogues. Today I give you a brief peek at Russian novelty biscuits. Mass produced snack foods in any country are by turns intriguing and perplexing. What counts as junk food and how it is marketed in various locales is … Continue reading
like Marbles, but better
Night falls quickly in the mountains. There is a brief lull between after dinner tea and the blinding darkness. A darkness that comes so thick and fast it makes brushing teeth in the far-away, bug-ridden, and pitch-black outhouse seem highly optional. But in this in-between moment where the day ends and night hasn’t yet started … Continue reading
The Darker Truths
Upon reflection, I make this trip sound like it was a fairy tale. It was. But a real, proper Grimm’s fairy tale where people are drawn and quartered and there is as much misery as there is joy. Don’t get me wrong. There was joy. Tons of it. In no particular order this included: singing … Continue reading
Yurt 101
Yurts are the traditional round houses of nomadic Asian tribes (should you want details on its origins (hint: it’s not Mongolian) – see here). A yurt is vaguely equivalent to a teepee in that it was originally intended as a permanent home for communities on the go. You can put one up and take it … Continue reading
Que Sera Sara? 