Dinosaur Bones
So today we got to hold real dinosaur bones! And get a sneak preview of some very large, very impressive, and as yet unidentified skeletal...
Tagged: Family
In Praise of Crap Towns
Here we are, in Savannakhet, Laos, the third-largest city in the People’s Republic, as all 120,000 inhabitants would, I’m sure, be pleased to tell you,...
Anyone the Wiser?
I have seen some unusual bathroom set-ups in my time. But this, on the Vietnam-Laos border at Lao Bao, has me completely stumped. The ladies...
Age Appropriate Reading
The creator of the immortal line “The bitches mortared the piss hole and it didn’t blow up!” has, this evening, completed his reading of Chickenhawk,...
Creative Writing
As part of our homeschooling topic on the Vietnam War, Z has been reading Chickenhawk. While not as “adult” as the current meaning of the...
The Night Bus
So, the night bus in London. Squabbling teenagers. Aggressive crackheads spouting bullshit at the bus driver in pursuit of a free ride home (or wherever)....
You are Nine, Going on Nineteen
So Z got dumped by his girlfriend. Or did he? It came up the first time in a moment of anxiety atop a sand dune...
Hounds, Bikes and Dunes
Z and I are sitting at a roadside stall in Mui Ne, Vietnam, watching a very cute, extremely solemn and phenomenally determined toddler hounding an...
In Which We Slay the Hydra
We have won the long division war! Once Z started humming the theme tune to 2001 at volume, I knew we were going to be...
Ladybird Hats
In South-East Asia, we’ve been spending a lot of time on the back of bikes. Call them motos, xe om or motorbike taxis, they’re generally...