Memoir

There was a game that we used to play in the office called, ‘Would / Wouldn’t’. Every adult female would be attached either of the monikers. We even had cards made that we could hold up as [more…]

There’s a game to be played with airline names. BA, British Airways, is re-named, ‘Bloody Awful’, Alitalia become ‘Always Late in Take-off and Landing’.  And if you don’t realise SAA stands for ‘Sodding Awful Airline’ then [more…]

Tangled up in the Vizconde massacre investigation, I’m having to lie low in a place called Sipalay on the Island of Negros. I keep myself busy in the provincial home of an extended family, a dynasty founded by eight brothers, whose decedents include the [more…]

I don’t know if you’re familiar with Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’? If not, as usual, put this nonsense to one side and find a copy. I realised that I wasn’t particularly well read the day I dropped the iPad in the bath. Don’t laugh, it was plugged into the [more…]

Tangled up in the Vizconce massacre investigation and having just escaped from a Filipino jail, I’m now on the run and heading south to lie low long enough to be forgotten about. I have a letter of [more…]

At 5227 San Augustin Street, Makati City, after dark, there were no yellow ribbons for me nor a line of concerned people praying and clutching the rosary. A maid answers the door and looks surprised rather than [more…]

If we’re ever in the same place at the same time, I’m the quiet one standing in the corner, keeping his own council, people-watching, shy (or even just plain rude). I might be in my own little [more…]

‘I hope that you’ve all studied logical positivism?’ Incarcerated in Paranaque Municipal Jail, part of Metro Manila’s southern urban sprawl, it is boily hot and dark. Thousands of pairs of pin prick brown eyes look at me [more…]