Tiny Notes From Hanoi: It’s Kinda Different With a Kid
October 22, 2014

Tiny Notes From Hanoi: It’s Kinda Different With a Kid

Welcome to this exciting new series of (hopefully) near daily updates on our very recent move to Hanoi (like, last Friday)! Between living in a compact little hotel room in an area without walkable sidewalks (but with a fine cacophany of scooters roaring at all …

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What I’m Talking About When I Talk About China
August 21, 2014

What I’m Talking About When I Talk About China

A few weeks ago, I was randomly contacted by someone working for an expat relocation company. He wanted me to write a guide for Suzhou, a city I spent a total of one afternoon in several years ago, interviewing for a temporary job doing localization …

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Leicester is For Food Nerds: A Tangentially Culinary Introduction to an Unlikely Place
August 4, 2014

Leicester is For Food Nerds: A Tangentially Culinary Introduction to an Unlikely Place

Leicester (lɛstər/ les-tər) isn’t exactly on the global culinary map. It’s barely on any map at all, except perhaps one detailing manufacturers of, say, sturdy meat pies or Indian sweets.     Rumour has it that people have traveled vast distances to get a big …

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A Totally Impractical Guide to Camping in England With a 4 Month Old Baby
July 3, 2014

A Totally Impractical Guide to Camping in England With a 4 Month Old Baby

Last weekend, we borrowed a car from our crunchy granola car-share group in Leicester and drove to somewhere in Derbyshire (pronounced, approximately, Darbəshr, in case you aren’t intuitively British*) in the cold, grey rain, for a fine weekend of family camping, frantic trail cycling (which we …

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I’m Learning Vietnamese, Y’all: What You Really Need To Know When Learning a New Language
June 18, 2014

I’m Learning Vietnamese, Y’all: What You Really Need To Know When Learning a New Language

I’m Learning Vietnamese. I Think I’m Learning Vietnamese. I really think so.     So I’m learning another language. I’m adding Vietnamese, slowly and poorly intoned, to my slapdash mental collection of half remembered words and phrases from a dozen countries. I may have mentioned this once or …

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Feed Me, Leicester: Sichuan Brothers Hotpot (Woohoo!)
June 12, 2014

Feed Me, Leicester: Sichuan Brothers Hotpot (Woohoo!)

Remember last week when those guys at Momondo took us out for lunch at Kayal down on Granby Street and we stuffed ourselves on spicy seafoody things and massive dosas stuffed with lovely fragrant smashed spud and whatnot? Well, this week they took us out …

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Feed Me, Leicester: Eating Everything Before We Go, the Kayal Edition
June 2, 2014

Feed Me, Leicester: Eating Everything Before We Go, the Kayal Edition

One of the lesser-known perks of having an overtly personal blog that occasionally masquerades as something useful is that you sometimes get some rather unexpected offers out of left field. Like last week, after I finished up my rather haphazard month of attempting happiness, I …

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More Things That Are Ridiculously Easier in Your Own Language: Food!
April 7, 2014

More Things That Are Ridiculously Easier in Your Own Language: Food!

  The other day, we decided to order dinner in from a kebab shop in our neighbourhood here in Leicester. The menu was online, but it wasn’t linked to any of those nifty websites that also let you place your order and pay in advance. …

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Well, That Was Certainly Interesting: Brief Notes on Having Just Spawned a Baby
March 3, 2014

Well, That Was Certainly Interesting: Brief Notes on Having Just Spawned a Baby

Last Wednesday, I did something I’d never done before, in a way that went in a totally different way to how I had roughly planned it. Kind of like blindly climbing Mt Bromo in Indonesia at dawn, with the thick sulphur mists obscuring everything until …

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I Want to be Sedated: Adventures in Getting my Act Together in Leicester
December 14, 2013

I Want to be Sedated: Adventures in Getting my Act Together in Leicester

People, my mind is muddled like a big ball of muddled things all muddled together with a muddling pestle. I’ve been trying to get my act together to write all of the posts that this particular point in time deserves. Of these, there are many. …

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Why, Hello Leicestershire: Notes on Suddenly Moving to Middle England
December 1, 2013

Why, Hello Leicestershire: Notes on Suddenly Moving to Middle England

People, I have moved to England.     The seemingly interminable spouse visa application process suddenly terminated and within a week of getting our surprise approval we were safely ensconced in a ridiculously genteel, chocolate-box village just outside of Leicester. That’s the one pronounced Lester. …

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Big Dumplings in Little China
October 20, 2013

Big Dumplings in Little China

It’s hard to write about your homeland.   I’ve spent decades honing my skills at describing places from the perspective of an outsider looking in. It helps to not fully understand what’s going on, or if I actually do know what’s going on, to be …

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