Animals
The Day I Met Trixie
Somewhere a cockerel starts crowing. It is 3 am and barely an hour since the passing of the last “booming bass” tricycle. Not to be outdone a dog starts barking, then another and another and [more…]
Philippines
Democracy
Keeping It in The Families
Your humble author and Imelda Marcos have been in the same place at the same time only once. Thirty years ago the trade winds had tempted a much younger me to a dusty road beside [more…]
Arts
Postcard from Lille Valete
They say that as soon as you’ve finished writing your story then you’ve reached the point when you have to write it. They are correct. Words, like muscles, need flexed and re-used over and over [more…]
Arts
Postcard from Lille Part 59
I’m at my Utopia, a community in the jungle that I have supported, a place of peace and harmony between peoples. It has been trashed. The Utopians have fought amongst themselves, wrecked the place and [more…]
Arts
Postcard from Lille Part 58
I’m sitting at the edge of a thinning of the rainforest. My two tail-end Charlies are squatted beside me having just returned from an evening recce. Our other companions are making camp for the night, [more…]
Arts
Postcard from Lille Part 57
A funny thing happened on the way to Lille university. Funny for the rest of us but not so funny for my wife. She got stuck in the Metro’s automatic doors. They closed on her [more…]
Arts
Postcard from Lille Part 56
Before I start, Gisele is a flowery writer and is prone to exaggeration. Aren’t we all? She is also prone to acting on those exaggerations, therefore we must take what she says seriously. Plus, across [more…]
Arts
Postcard from Lille Part 55
At the end of a veranda, which separated the novice nun’s dormitory from the school’s basketball court, was a ‘shower’. A pyramid of plastic buckets sat below a tap which part filled them as it [more…]
Arts
Postcard from Lille Part 53
The road took the route of least resistance. It followed the coast to the nearest sizeable town and then swung inland, following rivers and valleys into the interior. The dropping tide lapped the edge of [more…]