What Does A Travelling Single Mum Look Like?

Travelling as a single parent, there generally aren’t that many photos of you. The pic above is one of few with me and Z together, and there’s hardly any of me alone (we’re in Borneo above).

So I asked Z to take one outside the museum in Kupang, Timor, Indonesia, for a post in which a whole bunch of world travelling parents bare, if not our souls, then at least our wardrobes.

Now, I’m a little blurry, unfortunately, but this is me:

1: Hair.

Having been dying my hair since the age of twelve, I was fascinated to discover my natural hair colour for the first time in more than two decades on this trip. Not sure I like it, mind.

I cut it with nail scissors. It’s probably due another bout.

2: Makeup.

I do have some, and wear it occasionally. I should probably have put some on for this photo. But my toes are painted. Pretty essential when you live in flip-flops and your feet are generally filthy.

3: Vest.

By Target (say: “Targé”) in Melbourne, Australia. $7. Not suitable for conservative areas of Asia, it works a blinder with short-shorts on the beach. It goes with all three of my bottom half options, and I’m looking forward to finding some trousers in Bali that a) fit me b) go with it and c) are neither batik nor tie-dye.

4: Skirt.

From a vintage clothes shop in Adelaide, Australia. My ma splurged $10 on this, in a pre-Christmas shopping spree. It goes with three of my top half options and doesn’t ride up too far on the bike. (I also own a party frock!)

5: Flip-flops.

My last pair bit the dust in Kupang, Timor. I spent the extraordinary sum of 40,000 rupiah – that’s almost $5! – because Z thought I should start wearing heels. I’d have liked another pair of spangly ones, though. Maybe this week?

6: Handbag

I spent almost a whole $20 on this in Dili, Timor Leste (East Timor) after the camera bag I “borrowed” from my 18-year-old cousin gave up the ghost (while I was in a hurry to bribe a traffic cop). It’s a Diesel fake with lots of pockets on the outside and the partitions from “my” old camera bag on the inside.

7: Cigarette

It took Z so long to work out how to work my DSLR that I’d started a cigarette by the time he took the shot. Giving up smoking is one travel goal I have yet to achieve, and my son’s very disappointed in me. Marlboro Lights cost under a pound a pack in Indonesia.

8: Helmet

200,000 rupiah ($22) from one of a myriad helmet shops in Pengosekan, Ubud, Bali. An essential safety item in the biking mama’s wardrobe, it has a tinted visor – a mistake. Although it is, at least, plain black, it’s also missing chin protection.

9: Motorbike

My bane and my saviour. Skull and crossbones stickers (not shown) are Z’s sole attempt at customization, even though we both hate the colour scheme.

I have a complicated relationship with our Honda Vario, which provides a sense of freewheeling liberty on the good days (and roads) and feels like a very expensive ball and chain on others. (This is a good day.. This was not such a good day.)

The bike cost me 11 million rupiah, or north of $1200. The dealer will buy it back for 10 million, assuming we haven’t trashed it too badly.

Well… That’s ME…

To meet some other travelling parents, who probably won’t be half as blurry as me, and arguably more naturally posed, why don’t you head on over to: