Writings

Sometimes You Just Need to Get the Hell Outta Dodge
March 1, 2015

Sometimes You Just Need to Get the Hell Outta Dodge

The French had a word for those long grim grey drizzly damp Hanoi winters. Le crachin, they called it, which also applied to similarly grim, grey, drizzly damp French places like Bretagne. They probably attached a grumbled maudit to it, shrugged their shoulders, lit up …

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Let’s Hear it For the Boy: Notes on Thwack’s First Birthday
February 26, 2015

Let’s Hear it For the Boy: Notes on Thwack’s First Birthday

Have you seen this baby? A year ago today, he made a mad dash for the outside world, narrowly averting a first appearance in the hospital elevator, born in a hastily cleared labour room to the sounds of John Coltrane on the iPhone. Everything went so …

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Do Shared Memories Still Exist if One Party is Trying Really Hard to Forget?: Notes on Losing 5 Years of Travel
January 24, 2015

Do Shared Memories Still Exist if One Party is Trying Really Hard to Forget?: Notes on Losing 5 Years of Travel

    This one has been worming its way through my head for about a week or two now. It’s a tricky one, one I can’t quite articulate without giving too much away. I write publicly, but I have boundaries. I need to tread carefully …

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10 Practical Reasons Why You Probably Shouldn’t Move to Hanoi With Your Baby
December 23, 2014

10 Practical Reasons Why You Probably Shouldn’t Move to Hanoi With Your Baby

Last week, I adamantly insisted that Vietnam- or, more specifically, Hanoi- was the place to be if you have a small urchin to care for. Because reasons. Lots of very good reasons. However, I was totally lying. Kind of. In a hyperbolic, contrarian fashion, I …

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You Should Definitely Move to Vietnam With Your Baby
December 21, 2014

You Should Definitely Move to Vietnam With Your Baby

I’m going to preface this by noting and underlining the fact that I am an unreliable narrator. I’m also a barefaced liar (intermittently) who is concurrently preparing a post arguing the exact opposite thesis. Frankly, I’m not even sure which one I believe the most. …

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Tiny Notes From Hanoi: It’s Like Downton Abbey, Except Different
November 11, 2014

Tiny Notes From Hanoi: It’s Like Downton Abbey, Except Different

We have a house, people. A whole house to ourselves, partway down a narrow scooter-wide lane, off a side street, a block from the lake. After two months of living out of suitcases, over a month living with family (both sides, on both sides of …

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Tiny Notes From Hanoi: Everything is Amazing When You Leave Your Phone at Home
October 29, 2014

Tiny Notes From Hanoi: Everything is Amazing When You Leave Your Phone at Home

  Yesterday I left my phone in the hotel room when I went out with Thwack strapped to my front. We were just popping out for a moment to hunt and gather some sort of lunch for me before I had to take a cranky, …

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Tiny Notes From Hanoi: A Home, a Banh Mi and Thou
October 23, 2014

Tiny Notes From Hanoi: A Home, a Banh Mi and Thou

Welcome to Day 2 in my return to blogging, miniature stylee. Today we went and visited our new house. It isn’t ours yet- there is a lovely Danish family still living in it- but we got to have a second look around it for the …

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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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How to Pack for the Person You’d Like to Become
September 5, 2014

How to Pack for the Person You’d Like to Become

  We moved out of our little terrace house last weekend. Our dining room full of boxes is now stacked neatly in the third floor spare room of a sprawling Victorian house in the groovier bit of Leicester. We have a surprising amount of stuff …

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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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