nonfiction Category
Then and Now
Posted on October 30, 2016 1 Comment
Gather round, grab a bean bag, get comfortable. I’ve got some things to get off my chest, so let’s start with my story of expatriation and repatriation. On the 1st of February 1975, my parents and I arrived in Australia from Brunei as new migrants. My mother was 41, my father 47. I wasn’t […]
Some reading over Memorial Day weekend
Posted on May 27, 2016
It’s miserable weather here in Houston. Day 2 of a raging thunderstorm sees the dogs cowering next to me at my writing table, and the children home. Last night was more than a little rough, with periodic alarms from flash flood warnings punctuating my sleep, and an automated phone call from the school at 4.29am (I […]
Rewriting the Past
Posted on March 2, 2016 14 Comments
In my previous post, I talked about being prompted to write a note to my 13 year old self. I was asked what I would say to 13 year old me, and I responded with as much honesty as I could. But it got me thinking; if I did have the opportunity to speak to my […]
A Note to my 13 Year Old Self
Posted on March 2, 2016 1 Comment
It’s Wednesday and already it’s been a long week. With one thing after another piling up and nagging at me to catch up and keep up. There’s a point here, bear with me! My clever, funny, powerhouse friend Avital runs a weekly column over at SheKnows called Ask A Raging Feminist. Each week Avital asks […]
Wikipedia’s list of common misconceptions
Posted on January 20, 2016
Sometimes, the Internet comes together in a beautiful dance of oddities. This wikipedia page is a perfect example of that. Why sear meat? Can MSG give you migraines? Do Twinkies last forever? Do you have to wait 24 hours before filing a missing person’s report? What is the forbidden fruit? This answers to these and more […]
El Sibonéy
Posted on January 18, 2016
Our second day of vacation in Key West, we Yelped for restaurants not too far away (always a criterion when moody teenagers are in tow), and El Sibonéy came up. The rating was good, though not stellar, but the reviews piqued our interest. They were resoundingly good. We headed out for a late-ish lunch, bellies rumbling, tempers […]
New year blues
Posted on January 10, 2016
Happy new year! Which path are you taking for 2016? So here we are, at the end of the first week of the new year, and I’m already talking about depression. Unfathomable, right? Or is it really? After all, we have just come out the other side of effectively two months of US holidays.
Irrational Fears (and rational ones too)
Posted on November 10, 2015
My friend Travis of The Fisher of Stories is talking about some of his fears. You should go check out his post. Have a look around while you’re there, and say ‘hi!’ from me. His fears seem to be rational and have a basis in reality. Mine, however, are mostly not.
Are bindis the tip of the cultural appropriation iceberg?
Posted on October 17, 2015
I’m testing out Facebook’s revamped Notes feature and riffing on bindis and questions cultural appropriation. Apologies if you’re reading a duplicate version of this piece, but it’s a useful way for me to track traffic. I read this (linked) article this morning and it got me thinking about the wearing of bindis and other cultural […]
The things I was never going to do…
Posted on October 7, 2015 20 Comments
When I was in my teens, I knew I never wanted to be a teacher. My father was a teacher, many of my uncles were teachers, my cousins were teachers, there were teachers everywhere I looked. I knew with the certainty of teenagehood that the last profession on Earth I would ever enter would be […]
Asha Rajan 