The Happy Clappers

The Happy Clappers were aboard, or, as our cousins across the Tasman would call them, the Hippie Clippers. They were a happy bunch too, charismatic Christians from all over Indonesia, gathering in Jakarta to pray for the successful re-election of the current PM, Joko Widodo. There was, honestly, Happy. A lovely guy, very bright and […]

Muzium Telekom

I was wandering peripateticly (as you do,) and came across this staircase, it looked green and inviting so I accepted the invitation and up I went I did. Past this beautiful flower and this sleepy guy, (sssshhhh, come on, lets tippy toe past him). Up up to the corner and around the bend, walking, walking, […]

The Tell Tale Hat

We’ve all…well…ok….some of us….have read Edgar Allan Poe’s chilling tale of the Tell Tale Heart. This, gentle reader is the Tale…(pause for dramatic effect)…of the Tell Tale Hat. it was a day like any other…well, actually it wasn’t. It was a pretty terrible day what with K being in Adelaide with her family grieving over […]

Senior Citizens of Bangkok

The Lady in the White Sari

119 Lake Terrace Ballygunge. A house like any other in a street like any other. There’s our room, with the green shutters closed, on the top floor. This is Shonkar. Cook, valet, chowkidar, odd jobs man, you name it. Faithful servant of the Dutt family these many years past. Shonkar came from a small village […]

Joyce Haskett

We have been quiet and will be for a while longer for our hearts lie with our beloved Mother, Joyce, who, after starring in our lives and shining light and love and laughter into the dark corners of many hundreds of other people’s lives has left us at the age of 93. The good may […]

Dislocated book report: The Sound and The Fury – William Faulkner

“…I could smell the curves of the river beyond the dusk and I saw the last light supine and tranquil upon the tide-flats like pieces of broken mirror, then beyond them lights began in the pale green air, trembling a little like butterflies hovering a long way off…” Kristen’s take: Our friend, Bob who we […]

Wats ? Yeah Lots. Butterflies and Babes ? You bet ! Hellfire and Micky Mouse ? But of course. Our last 2 weeks in SE Asia.

Hi faithful reader, we have passed on from gorgeous, idyllic Luang Prabang, sashayed through incredible Vientiane, paused briefly wondering at it-really-does grow-on-you Bangkok and are now pinching ourselves at actually, really truly being in one of the centres of the universe, God’s navel, Buddha’s belly button, Kali Central, Kolkata, the most vibrant, exotic and exciting […]

Buddhist Hell in Luang Prabang

The very notion that the Buddhist philosophy includes a Hell of eternal suffering, hideous torments and gruelling damnation surprises many of we Westerners, who tend to have a sort of fluffy bunny chocolate box idea of the religion. Well, bake your bunny in a pie and throw the chocolate box in the fire folks because […]

Spoooooooooky

Dear Readers, Pray, let me moan and groan a little, rattle my chain, fix you with a glittering eye and ask. “Do Ye believe in ghosties” ? (Disclaimer: We’re Catholics so we have to, one of our Big Three has the word “Ghost” as part of his title). I had taken some snaps at the […]