L'alt penedès — One of my favorite things about traveling is the conversation. It’s not just that the conversation with fellow travelers tends to veer toward the substantive and intimate, it’s that when it happens yo...
Chandigarh — When we go out to study away from home we are so excited. So keen to be grown ups. Pretending to be grown up but failing most often than not. Soon our school and college days are over and along with t...
Hong kong — My love spent the night at his aunts place. Her son came home and yelled at her all night. My love sat and comforted her. Listened to her tell stories and just was with her. In the end my love missed ...
San francisco — A few days ago our upstairs neighbors began yelling at each other. It escalated quickly and in less than a minute my husband and I were reaching for our phones, determined to call the police. The only...
New york — In my case, I just noticed how much we take our native language by granted. The year I spent in London was not enough to make me feel this (since I was living with Portuguese flatmates), but these pas...
Hong kong — At 6.45am in the morning, the place is packed with diners reading papers with a pot of tea. No staring at the phones, just strangers sharing table together and mingling over food. This placed is call...
Batemans bay — Hi. I have a dear friend, who I have known since the second grade. Years ago now, she threw out a hypothetical which was “if you could see what your hands looked like at your moment of death, would yo...
Newtown — Finding your own identity or the ‘true you’ can sometimes be like searching for a needle in haystack. Especially when you have masked yourself all these years in circumstances, persona, things and rel...
Toronto — Every time someone complains about the cost of the TTC, I think of things like this. Just a ceiling leak onto the track bed. But there’s not enough money to maintain infrastructure, let alone increase...
Toronto — I admit I’m sometimes frustrated by my mom and her stubbornness, inability to follow instructions, and newly formed (strange) habits, but I wonder if it’s just payback from my own stubborn teen years....
San francisco — Panic. She scrubbed her hands in frantic little jabs making sure to get the flat simple skin between her fingers by raking her fingertips across the spaces between her knuckles. She spread her fingers...
München — Hi. As a kid, I loved construction and I loved miniature. I would make miniature tents from straws (for bears, because apparently bears slept in straw beamed tents). I was never into dolls, courtesy o...
Toronto — For the last few years, I’ve been taking an hour out of my day to read before work. Always in public, always alone. It helps me reset from the previous day, and prepare for the day to come. It’s my fa...
Makati — And this was yesterday. Today - wonder of wonders! - it is actually worse. From the window of my flat, I can see that the long artery connecting the Central Business District to the rest of the city h...
Chandigarh — So if it’s such a small sound why does the word sound so big? I don’t know what you are talking about. Okay let me try again. How many disasters are you a part of?” What are you trying to get at? ...
Aireys inlet — My brushes with Buddhism have been few and far between and yet profoundly important for me. I associate these encounters with three specific words that represent very particular concepts. The words ...
Cebu city — My Life Here in Cebu City “God is the only one who will never leave you, when the rest walk out” Above picture was taken during our Single for Christ Fellowship at Villa Asela Garden Resort, Cordova...
Westerheim — We met winter at a place thirty minutes from home, and man, was he in good shape. Still not done decorating: an icicle here, a snowbank there. He presented us with some interesting questions. How did ...
Washington — On the sunniest day of the year so far, we remained in the muffled dimness of his closed-curtained bedroom. Spring had arrived fresh and unexpected, but we made no attempt to follow through on the ide...
Guatemala — Sin temor a ver atrás, podré seguir mi camino. Sin miedo a caerme sin importar lo alto que esté… Extenderé mis alas como las mariposas y levantaré mi vuelo hasta que ya no pueda más. Sin importar c...
Santa cruz — It was predawn and bluish outside when my phone started to vibrate beneath my pillow. It was cold and fresh and dark and I had to get my clothes on, including my belt, without waking anyone and get d...
Madrid — Maybe the best way to read this to scroll up so you can’t see the photo you’ve just looked at again, or maybe screw one eye up so you can read the words but the picture drops out of focus. Driving ou...
Seattle — If you’ve considered seeing American Sniper, prepare for a long, intense, gut-wrenching walk into the the darkness of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. While is not in itself a movie about PTSD, there ...
Portland — Long ago and faraway, there was a chef who hit a dead end, injured, beat up, down to his last dollar…despite a glittering career as a head spinning artist of soul food, he couldn’t go on. Luckily, s...
Toronto — “One Time Only” “U Can Do Me Free”. Every few days something different. I wonder if it’s a code. I wonder if anyone understands.
Duluth — Happy 2nd birthday. Thanks for your birthday greetings. It’s my birthday! My friend George suggested we simply drop the decades, so it’s my 2nd birthday. We can light candles on a cake without engag...
Chandigarh — Why do we look to find something that defines us? Why do we fall head over heels into anything remotely exciting? Somebody said that love should be chosen like you would a career, that this whole at f...
Kijimadaira-mura — I think I have a new favorite thing in Japan - the Rotenburo. It means “outdoor bath,” and refers to an outdoor onsen, or hot spring. I’d been in a onsen before, but it was inside, and I was honestly...
Jerusalem — It’s 3:34 am. My stomach is growling. It’s pitch black and silent, except for the freezer whirring. It feels like the whole city is rising and falling from the inhales and exhales of people’s slumber....
Duluth — With -17° outside, I dig into the freezer for a remembrance of last summer: strawberries picked at the berry farm and blueberries from a Duluth hillside. I add some oat bran, yogurt, milk, vegetable p...
's-hertogenbosch — A truly religious experience
San francisco — There were mornings when he felt that things were getting away from him. It wasn’t the first thought. More of a feeling at the first. A slight, unnatural weight to the comforter. A heaviness between t...
Toronto — You might not be able to see it, but in the window of my neighbouring building a tenant has signs up that say “sicko pedofile” and “sex with cats”. He changes these signs every few days, and sometimes...
Tübingen — I had seen this a thousand times. It’s right across a place where I regularly shop. But on this evening, in this moment, a sundial, consisting of the sun and a light post, cast its shadow in just the ...
San francisco — And the main thing I love about going solo - this wide openness to serendipity - has momentarily lost its luster. I say this even though the last flight I was on, flying in to here, I was lucky enough...
New york — I recently moved to New York, where I’ll be working on my programming skills. A new city in a new country, a place where I’ve never been. And of all the things I found around me, it was a long forgott...
Baltimore — A fireplace, set in the same marble as the counter, dominates the back of the room and the hundreds of bottles clustered on it and around it glitter in the semi-darkness. Above, stretching to the high...
Duluth — As I consider the number times I have laundered these two pair of long underwear in the past month, I wonder if I should buy a couple additional pair. With the purchase I might smell fresher. This co...
Guatemala — Me enamoré: Sí, me ocurrió. Después de tantos años de jurar que no sucedería, llega ese momento en el que todo lo que una vez rechazaste te acecha y de esa manera te abruma. No me había sucedido, qui...
Guatemala — – Jay me pidió que me casará con él. – ¿Aceptaste? Asentí. – Antes de otoño –volvió a ver el camino. Tendré que seguir así, para no hacerle daño. Aunque fuera al contrario, le causaría más daño. Sien...
Southbank — Series on Seeing 3 “Since every moment of perception is necessarily limited by the mind’s inability to grasp either the complexity or the impermanence of the flux of reality, perceptions that seem to...
Aireys inlet — Series on Seeing 2 Were the eye not attuned to the Sun, the Sun could never be seen by it. ——————————————————————-Goethe “For ‘tough-mind...
Duluth — I am not an eligant, fancy cook. A few days back I discovered some ‘aging’ stew meat in my freezer which I realized needed using. So I gathered an assortment of the winter vegetables I get periodicall...
Guatemala — I’ve found someone who makes me smile, makes me feel stronger than anyone else. There’s something special whenever I look at his eyes… he’s handsome, smart and a gentleman, but I know… it’s not ab...
Portland — Let’s cool one first with the P.S. as I ask you to play any favorite version of Thelonious Monk’s romantic tune, “Crepuscule with Nellie.” If you don’t know the song, here’s a gorgeous rendering from ...
Saskatoon — I’m tired of treating everything like a business venture. I might be a workaholic except for the fact that I don’t have enough actual work to keep me that busy, nor do I really have anything I can for...
Princeton — My first post on ‘hi’. Seems like this is the right channel to sketch out the building blocks of a new startup. I spent the first 23 days writing 12 hours per day resulting in 100,000+ words. I have y...
Wellington — “Toast girl.” That was the label I had for her, the labels we had for each other (hers for me was “Toast guy”), before we learned the other’s name. It was the first thing we talked about when we met...
London — If curiosity had a color, which would it be? Curiosity feels like this imaginary co-pilot in our everyday lives. Unlike any other co-pilot though, this is one that does its best job as a navigator wh...
Aireys inlet — Series on Seeing 1 Last night, Norwood Hanson’s Patterns of Discovery fell into my hand for the first time in many years, causing me vividly to remember the excitement of first reading his introducto...
Canberra — Hi. It appears the Australian gumnut has still got it. A well known children’s series (authored by Mae Gibbs) tells of the antics of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie__ naked bush babies, adorned only in gum ...
Singapore — Even though i’m in class, i still have to catch up on writing on this page. Yes, i have improved on my drawing when i wasn’t active on this page. The picture above was my work. I think that i did it w...
Nueva valencia — I began liking paintings when my mother introduced me to the world of Encyclopedias when I was young back then. You can definitely taste and lick the early 1990’s summer breeze when you know your fami...
Narita — What right do I claim? None. No family, no blood ties, no citizenship. Friends, yes, but nothing legal. A visa, up for renewal yet again. Nothing binding. Nothing strict. And so you come. You, too, w...
Singapore — Okay there are some people like, “Where did she disappeared to?” And here i am, going to answer your questions. I grown up. I’m turning into a teenager. BUT that dosent mean that i’m all mature. PSSH...
Melbourne — Let’s face it, she had never been a city girl. My sister was hardly impressed by the tall edifices in the central parts of the city and night clubs were something she didn’t quite understand. She was ...
Rio de janeiro — Not all people like airports. Most people actually dislike them. But there are those who appreciate airports. I do, and a few of my friends do too. People who don’t enjoy the airport experience focus ...
Saskatoon — I was hospitalized not that long ago for another one of my famous chest infections. I was super down about everything, because this was right before my final exams started and I had papers up to my ey...
Saskatoon — I consider myself strong and independent. I do admit that over the course of the last two years I have strongly doubted my abilities and my intuition. However, coming out of where I have been, looking...
New york — So much of my life revolves around words and yet, on most days, I fail to string two together. I can blame it on winter all I want, but this has been going on for half a year now.
Mussoorie — I had never been to Himalayas until last week. I never climbed over 4000 ft until last week when I was staying at almost 8000 feet above sea level. It was a fascinating experience and I enjoyed to the...
Manila — I’m on minute twenty-one of waiting for the app’s operation to finish. Despite my phone’s 128 gigabytes of storage — which I had considered massive for, oh, about two days — I now have to clear out a ...
Setagaya-ku — As had been his habit since he moved back into his mother’s house, Ashley once more retreated to the living room after dinner to page through his vast collection of photographs. He kept them in an ass...
Shibuya-ku — This past week, my friend Adrian Hogan and me had an exhibition with some of our illustration work in a small but cute venue located in one of Tokyo’s fashion district, Harajuku: Galerie Le Monde. It...
Gothenburg — Not until I pulled down the blinds did I realise that I was going to sleep in the workroom of a photographer. Or should I say hobby room, because the sliding door had been marked with the word “hobby”...
Saint ives — The man who owns this bookshop was calmly sitting in a semi-lit corner, surrounded by sketches, holding his vintage radio. It was cool in a casual way, but there was something especially poignant abou...
Yuzawa-shi — Though I was raised in a small town, I much prefer the fast-paced anonymity and autonomy I have in large cities. Being here in Yuzawa, Japan, is a serious change of pace, a tiny sliver of Tokyo, a sle...
Montpellier — Drive by night. Snow on the windshield. Leave the highway for the open road so often fantasized.
Aireys inlet — Listen, mate, I’m tired and wet, and I’d really just rather be alone right now.
New york — The panda’s eyes diverge, as he gets crazier and crazier by the panda minute. He’s yelling a bunch, but it’s in panda-nese, so only other pandas can hear. The duck looks at the panda and goes, “Yo, pa...
Bangkok — Jellyfish is great once it is dead. It is still pretty great when alive, as along as it is not swimming next to me. Stuck on the beach being poked by a long stick I had – great. Cut into pieces soakin...
Singapore — Watching the Class of ‘15 put up the annual NUS Law School performance made me miss the time where I was involved in my own class’s production. It was one of the major events in my life where I had to...
London — On Tuesday evening I had an opportunity to see (and hear!) a musician I’ve been longing to see live for ages - Phamie Gow - but she hardly ever does live gigs in London (or anywhere, actually!). My d...
Manila — My son is in his playpen, bopping along to the beat of the tune streaming from the computer. I was searching for stock music that my theater-director wife could use as pre-show house music for her upc...
Rio de janeiro — I was a very, very young film critic and he was a budding film auteur. Pedro Almodóvar was already a name recognised to those well informed in the European film/club/music/underground scene but in Bra...
Highlands — All summer long as the endless days passed by in a blur, I had meant to take them to their favorite beach. Week after week passed until one weekend, starting late in the day, I threw a cooler chest, t...
Pacifica — I’ve been coming to California every few years since I was 11 —- it’s among the handful of “default” US destinations for Filipino families, seeing as there are so many Filipinos here and, of course, ...
Aireys inlet — Star Trooper Alaric, American Sniper: Chris Kyle Class” In the year ACC 3420, Star Trooper Alaric returned to earth from his first half-millennium duty tour of nearby star systems. His crew understo...
New orleans — Is that a party, beyond this cute metal gate that keeps me out? I peered through with no shame, because I love gas lamps and they looked so warm. I smell the comfort of butter, the intensity of roux. ...
Amsterdam — I was in Amsterdam last spring, suitably suffering from some Amsterdam blues (unexplainable melancholic mindset completely unrelated to illegal substances, mind you.) when we walked into a narrow pub ...
Örebro — There’s something endearing about tulips. When you’ve just bought them and put them in a vase, they have a kind of dispassionate beauty, all crisp and understated and put-together. Two days later, so...
Paphos — The few days I was here I became convinced this beached ship must be named Europa. Tucked into the armpit of conflict I saw a rudderless boat loaded with Syrian refugees left to run aground by, depend...
Palm beach — Touch my marble, hear my music. I was born from gold and ivory. I wish for your love, your marvel. Admire me because you cannot stay, because you cannot breathe me in everyday. Novelty is my best frie...
Liverpool — After a brief dalliance with the world of the fountain pen, which was pleasing at times if a little messy, I am now enjoying the wonderful simplicity of the humble pencil. Why the switch? I purchased...
Pochomil — Wasn’t sure where to go.. Wanted sun and heat… Cozumel would be perfect! Dominican Republic works! But more heat 80* isn’t enough.. Nicaragua Nicaragua Nicaragua Is the paradise I found! Snow i...
Ujué — I’m staring at this branch of berries growing on an ancient stone wall within the Monasterio de Santa María la Real de la Oliva in Ujué, Spain. It’s our last day of location scouting in the Navarra re...
New orleans — In the light of day, Jackson Square puts on her make-up – an eyeshadow of colorful artwork on her fences, a blush of pink on her sun-setting skyline, a rouge of fire in the piercing blows of the stree...
Maui county — Snow is as alien to me as one can imagine; born in a tropical country, in deepest Southeast Asia, my birthright is a deep green and mountainous jungle. All the meteorological clichés apply: steaming h...
Kennett square — Artist Dina Brodsky said, “this process of ‘catching up’ was no longer valid for me.” It was therefore somewhat of a shock to discover a few years ago that this process of “catching up” was no longer...
Makati city — She’ll never admit just how beautiful she is. But you have to tell her. She won’t tell you to stop. But when she does, tell her anyway. Tell it to her by the way you look at her. Tell it to her before...
Sandefjord — Ascending from a gelatinous dreamland you open your eyes and suddenly find yourself obligated to deal with the practicalities of an external universe. Do not topple into that all-too-familiar state o...
Bangkok — Thailand has a wealth of noodle options. Some originated in Thailand, but a bunch came from up north in China. Most people have a favorite that they always order. Mine is the medium rice noodles – eve...
Ardrossan — With each step, And each breath, Through forests, Or seas, We reach and grab, Pieces of in-betweens. We collect souvenirs, With shutters, Or capture moments, with laughter, Eyes wide, We trace the wo...
London — One of the latest public spaces to open in central London is Pancras Square, part of the massive King’s Cross Central development. I wandered up there earlier in the week to take a look and liked wha...
San juan — The insistent beats of Gold Finger’s Carlita, my 6 o’clock alarm song, brought me awake feeling strangely unrested despite a seven-hour sleep. Remembering the dream I just had only served to dampen th...
Chithirapuram — I still can’t believe that I woke up here one day. How could this be India? How could a place be so many paradoxes all at once? How could it be ruthless, and romantic? Or overwhelming yet also calm? O...
Aireys inlet — I live on a slope, a gentle slope to be sure, but steep enough to be seen in the picture above if you look closely. The track in the woods curves to the left then sharply to the right, gradually wind...
Kirchheim unter teck — You could see them everywhere. Schools, town halls, sports halls and even private residences were adorned with these faux Bauhaus banalities. The feature challenged manikins were often shown doing sci...
Bangkok — Thailand has a wealth of noodle options. Some originated in Thailand, but a bunch came from up north in China. Most people have a favorite that they always order. Mine is the medium rice noodles – eve...
Mississauga — Growing up, I was lucky enough to be surrounded by my choice of Chinese restaurants. Given that I grew up in Mississauga (which is not known for making things pretty or distinct) they all look and see...