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,...
EscapeArtistes Blog
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...
Swans v. Dragons
Travel with children is a wonderful thing. The sheer, unalloyed joy they take in the smallest, and most unexpected things, the chance to watch them...
Our Friend Pho
Vietnamese is now officially Z’s favourite cuisine — second only to Italian, ahead of Thai and English — and, as noodle soup obsessives, we will...
The Birds and the Bees
In the aftermath of our not wildly successful dragon boat cruise, Z and I are ambling along the south bank of Hue’s Perfume River, trying...
Hue, with a Y
So the Perfume River of Hue, Vietnam, technically, and sadly relevantly, pronounced huey, is just that little bit less perfumed today. Timed, flawlessly, just as...
Mum, Mum, Your Hair is Turning Green!
When does a child count as a swimmer? I guess the baseline test is chuck them in and see if they sink or not. This...
On Laundry
So this rather hot Kiwi chap in his 30s hit on me in the hotel last night. Obviously, I completely failed to register it until...
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...