Use Your Voice on Social Media: Not Only for Cecil the Lion

People across the globe have read with heartbreak this week about the illegal hunting and killing of Cecil the Lion. We learned about the consequences that this hunter’s single action will have on the ecosystem of that entire pride, and especially on the many, many sons of Cecil who will now be killed by the next alpha male.

Although I’m not an activist, like so many this week I rallied. I read the news reports and was so outraged by it all that I Googled the now infamous dentist Walter Palmer and then took to social media to help spread the word and give my opinion, for what it was worth. (more…)

Parenting Advice: How to Raise a Teenager Who Doesn’t Keep Secrets

First things first, please. Ask yourself…as a teenager were you your parent’s dream-come-true or a total nightmare that cost them hours of sleep and a whole lot of heartache? Well, I was the latter. Not that I’m proud of it but I want to establish my expertise on this topic here at the start. I thought that parties, skipping school to hang out at the beach and boys with blue eyes trumped anything else during high school and I caused my Mom a ton of grief.

Fast forward 28 years, and you’d be in the centre of my own daughter’s first years in university. Her dad and I divorced when she was just a baby and for the most part it has been just she and I over the years. Well, I’m proud to say that over those years that my little angel told me – I’m hoping VERY close – to everything fun and exciting and amazing that has happened to her. I can still recall her first kiss, and exactly how she told me about it. It was so sweet, and made me remember mine. (more…)

2015 - Hong Kong

Dressing Up as a Traditional Chinese Opera Singer in Hong Kong [video + photos]

Actually living in a foreign country instead of just visiting it paves the way for a whole slew of fabulous ‘local’ experiences that one wouldn’t normally be able to experience … and that time I dressed up and performed in traditional Chinese opera makeup and costume now sits high on my list of treasured experiences that I will remember for the rest of my life. This wonderful afternoon and evening took place earlier this year during the first Chinese New Year I celebrated while actually living in greater China and it was so damn fun…I hope to have the chance to do it again (and again and again!). I’ve saved the costume and headpiece so if anyone want to do it next year, I’m in!! (more…)

Dealing with Empty Nest Syndrome: Confession From a Single Mom

That photo with my daughter was taken six years ago and I love it even more today than I did back when she was 13! She is my biggest joy in life and there is honestly no scenario I can imagine where a man or a job or an experience could ever even come close to replacing the unending happiness that her mere existence brings me. (more…)

Are Bloggers Opportunists and Social Media Whores?

Last week I saw two different writer friends in India sharing an article on social media and it made me want to click over to see what I was missing. Then I read it and walked away feeling personally disparaged. The author was coming off of a writing hiatus and essentially blaming ME (well, not me exactly but ‘foreign writers living in India’ during the time of the Delhi gang rape who wrote about it, which I was and DID) as one of the key culprits for her move away from the writing scene. (more…)

The Time I was Attacked, Shot At & Dad Rescued Me from Mexico

The year was 1992 and I was 21 years old. I was living near the beach in southern California with one of my best friends from Redlands, working part time and attending the University of California Irvine. There was a great deal on a seven day trip to Puerto Vallarta so I decided to head out on my first international solo trip!

Mexico is a beautiful country that I had safely travelled to a few times already (well, dozens if you count Tijuana on the SoCal border because in the U.S. the legal drinking age is 21 but … not in Mexico, so imagine how popular it is for U.S. teens!). The very first day I made friends with a really sweet and fun group of locals who took me under their wing and showed me the side of Puerto Vallarta that tourists never see. They took me to small clubs where a singer playing acoustic guitar belted out beautiful love songs, to a massive underground club far away from the touristy bars where I was the only foreigner, and to swim in beautiful lagoons … introduced me to real local food and taught me how to drink tequila like a Mexican (not the salt, shot, lime way we westerners do it). (more…)

Memories of a First Kiss

I was just reminded about my first kiss and no matter how many years — well, let me be honest … DECADES! — pass, the thought of it still brings a smile to my face. It was the 80s in Southern California and he was my very first boyfriend. He had blonde hair that he’d swish out from in front of his eyes with a sideways head flick and I thought he was simply dreamy. When he made the move from holding hands to a kiss let me tell you that it was nothing like the sweet kisses you see in movies though. (more…)

Back to Blogging Again — YeeHaw!

It’s 10pm and the first raindrops of the monsoon season are falling in Hong Kong. My speakers are belting out Steely Dan and I can’t seem to keep my toes from wigglin’ because tonight is the first time since the beginning of November that I’ve opened up my blog and wanted to type my little heart out again in ages. And although I know this isn’t going to be a long epic post and it probably won’t be very interesting to anyone, for me it’s a milestone because tonight officially marks the end to six months of blogger’s block! (more…)

Angela’s Asia Just Launched! My New Home for Luxury Travel Reviews for Asia

Man have I missed food blogging and writing travel reviews since leaving India back in 2013 {oh my gawd, like totally a lot!}. So it is with a heart full of GLEE and LOVE that I introduce you to my new baby Angela’s Asia, which has just launched now that I’m all settled into life in my new home Hong Kong. (more…)

Confession From a Single Mom: Being Selfish Made My Dreams Come True

If you know me or have followed along with my adventures then you know that the past four years have been hard. Not ‘cutting corners’ or ‘changing jobs’ hard but ‘we ate plain rice for a week’ and ‘I didn’t have a job for almost a year – a COUPLE of times’ – hard. The struggles were real and scary and caused a burden on my family and friends that was never there before…and cast doubts on the future for my daughter in terms of her education. (more…)

Interior Design DORK! The Secret to Decorating a Tiny Hong Kong Flat Like a Pro @ IKEA

Today is my birthday and what’s a girl to do when she’s fresh off the boat and doesn’t have friends yet in Hong Kong? Shop, darling…SHOP! And since I just signed the lease on the ‘tiny but fabulous’ flat I will be calling home in three days, well…this birthday handbags and shoes are being swapped for a water filter and furniture thanks in large part to a man named Ramesh and IKEA Hong Kong at Causeway Bay.

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Starting Life Over Again in Hong Kong – Day 1

It seems blissfully fitting that today is now officially the first day of the rest of my life because today is the day that the greatest joy in my life arrived 19 years ago when my daughter was born. While she has been enjoying her very first house party in her own apartment in the UK tonight, I relocated to Hong Kong! She is simply the best thing that ever happened to me and I’ve really missed her since she went off to uni a year ago, leaving me empty nested. So it feels ‘right’ for lack of a better term that this new chapter of my life should begin on the same day that the best part of my life began back in 1995. (more…)

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