Restaurant Owner Told Me “Get A Man” Over Complaint
Please note: I’m leaving the name of the restaurant out of this, I just want to tell the story, not blast the owner again. If…
Indonesia Expat Life: Single & Alone During Pandemic
There’s an awesome 70s megamix blasting through my apartment, the 32 degree heat today is dry and wildly reminiscent of the Southern California desert, and…
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[Vlog] Indonesia Expat Life: Attacked By Man With Machete
The Attack: 6 April 2020 at 3:45am Today's #lockdown video is not a fun one. I was woken up this morning at 3:45am by a…
Hassan al-Kontar | Meeting Syrian Living 46 Days in Malaysian Airport
I am one of only 3 writers or journalists who has sat down face-to-face with Hassan al-Kontar, the Syrian man stuck living in an airport. We…
Single Mom Diaries: Consequences of the Mistakes I Made
Until recently I always had a good relationship with my daughter. I was not a perfect mom by any stretch of the imagination but I loved her with my whole heart and more than anyone else EVER in my life. I tried to make our life something special. Of course, being a single mom without child support money wasn’t anything I had ever dreamed of for myself but she was very much worth it. (more…)
#InternationalGirlDay – India’s Red Brigade Trust Run by Child Survivors of Rape and Acid Attacks
11 October 2017 was International Girl Day. Back home in the USA girls and women fight for things like equal pay. Well, our sisters around the globe don’t always have it so easy. In India, only 11% of girls who are raped ever go on to lead ‘normal’ lives again. Almost ALL are blamed for the attack. Girls in rural areas are kicked out of the village and their family home and banished, so families can save face, while the men walk around with zero repercussions and able to do it all over again.
There is a group of very young (pre-teen – teenage) girls who started a group called Red Brigade Trust. They were all raped or victims of violence or acid attack and they are very brave. In India, girls don’t speak out about rape because that would bring shame on them and their family. But these brave girls do. If you can please donate even just $1 to their NGO they will use it to do good. (more…)
Expat Life: Reality of Raising My Child in USA, Spain & India
You know how sometimes we can’t see what’s right under our noses? And as parents we don’t realise how quickly time passes until it’s too late? Well that was me. My little angel was the best thing to ever happen to me. She was my greatest joy and my deepest frustration, sometimes in quite equal doses! Her father and I divorced when she was just 1 year old and anyone who has done it can attest that being a single parent isn’t easy. Yet she made that life we shared a true joy and she always made me proud to be a single mom. (more…)
A Week of Moon Cakes & Passion Fruit in Kuala Lumpur
This was a fabulous week in my world, discovering moon cakes after all these years in Asia … and finding SWEET passion fruit finally in Malaysia (woohoo!). (more…)
Top 5 Things Ex-Barcelona Expats Miss Most About Spain
I moved to Barcelona the first time by accident. It was 1993, the year after their summer Olympic games and I had bought the cheapest one-way ticket from Los Angeles to Europe I could find, which happened to be Amsterdam. It was May and I had not packed well for Northern Europe so I was freezing my ass off! After two days of smoking everything possible in the cool cafes near the Red Light District, I took a train to Paris. Paris was too expensive, San Sebastian and Pamplona weren’t what I was looking for, and I ultimately ended up in a seaside village 25 minutes south of Barcelona called Sitges. (more…)
Why I Chose Expat Life in Malaysia
The last time I remember being this light, this joyfully happy, this optimistic, and this positive was the summer of 2013. I can pinpoint triggers in my mind and there are precisely two to be exact. The first was in July when my daughter and I went on a very fun weeklong road trip in India before she moved away to head to uni in the UK. We drove the chauffer (not Shiva!) mad for hours-on-end singing our favourite songs from the 60s to 2000s, had wonderfully long talks that touched my heart, and shared special and dodgy moments adventuring around South India. The second was the next month when I flew back to the U.S. to renew my India visa and had a wild weekend with my brother and sister in San Francisco. It was indulgent, hilarious, and a bit naughty … everything you want from a reunion, right? (more…)
Attending Malay-Muslim Wedding Reception (Majlis Bersanding) | Kuala Lumpur Expat Life
After 18 months of living in Kuala Lumpur, I am so thrilled to have finally been invited to my very first Malay-Muslim wedding reception. Well, I had attended one last year for a short time but it was a spontaneous thing and I hadn’t actually known the couple (see that video here). This time, I’ve known the groom Kamal for close to a year and was wonderfully happy to meet his lovely bride Suhada and be able to take part in their lovely majlis bersanding. (more…)
Phuket | Eating Chicken Hearts & Getting Scammed at Night Market
It’s wild how different Thai street food is compared to what I’ve known for the past 18 months here in Malaysia. They’re super keen on literally ANYTHING on a stick it seems. Spicy is better. And there is huge pride in the freshness and quality by the hawker and food stall owners. Come with me as I explore a night market in Phuket and some local hawker street food along the seafront at Panwa Beach. I tried a few meats-on-a-stick that included a real first for me, chicken hearts!
Ohhhh and it was my first time being scammed by a night market vendor, that was not fun at all sadly. It cost me all my night market shots from my video cam, so forgive me please that the beginning of the video is all selfie video and me, me, me!