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We're back in lockdown here after over 400 days of no community cases so what better time than to start a podcast! My first one focuses on jumping down this hole to save my dog... and getting stuck there for hours. Listen to the full story here

The Great Chicken Nugget Shortage of 2020

I don't believe Covid-19 was started by bats. I think chickens got together and came up with an elaborate plan not to be eaten, ala Chicken Run, then blamed it all on the bats. We have no nuggets. Since like July time. Because of Covid. Because of the chicken conspiracy. People are coping okay with …

Oh monkey, you’re so pretty

The Rimba Monkey About a month or so ago a lone male monkey started using our roof and balcony to get from one side of the estate to the other. At first we were a bit wary because the last monkey that wandered the estate on its own turned vicious when the people who were …

Going Dry in January.

Alcohol is integral to the lives of many Westerners. Northern Europeans especially love binge drinking and telling tales that start with "I was mortal...". We use it to celebrate when we are happy and to drown our sorrows. People get paralytic at weddings. People get paralytic at funerals. Had a bad day? Have a beer. …

Anxious in Singapore

"Do you get beaten up often?" I absentmindedly asked the middle aged Chinese taxi driver as we rumbled through the overly Christmassy Singapore. A look of what I like to think was bemusement, flashed across his face as he sized me up - an equally middle aged, but smaller white woman in the back seat, …

Airports.

I (started to) write this while sitting in airport number 1 of the 4 I travel through before I get back to Newcastle. This first one is Brunei - then Kuala Lumpur - then Heathrow - then finally, Newcastle. It being Brunei there is no alcohol served in the airport so I've eaten a lasagne …

How I ended up on a dot in the middle of the Pacific

I always had ambitions to travel. I remember being young and my parents (while they were still together) taking us to places while they tried to get visas for Australia. Aged 11, I remember my mam talking about nurses who'd emigrated to Saudi Arabia who earned a fortune working for people who had gold taps …

The time I got more than I bargained for at the Malaysian border…

Kuala Lurah is an interesting place. It's like the Asian version of the wild west. In Brunei it is illegal to gamble. To buy alcohol. To sell cigarettes 1km from a school. From where I live it is a 40 minute drive to the Malaysian border; to Kuala Lurah. The nearest town after the border …

Selamat Hari Raya

Everytime I appear in anything for Bruhaha Comedy I'm still left wondering how on earth this happened! And why on earth does my voice sound like that?!

Trying Not to Cry at the Poetry Slam.

I can feel my breathing getting shallower and quicker. I’m nervous. I never get nervous. Six teachers, well five teachers and me – the only female – are sat on stage in front of maybe 200 students and staff… well maybe 100 but the lecture theatre seems full. No one comes with a banner for …