Ah, the life of a freelance travel writer. Fun, free and fulfilling – maybe not right now, but post-COVID-19? You’ll get to venture out into the world again, and get paid for doing so. Pretty cool. Right? Yes and no.
If you are travelling on your own, and writing about it, you may be able…
Where to look when things feel dire
When my grandfather was a punky British 14-year-old in 1944, he would stand at his bedroom window watching the bombs fall on London from a (reasonable) distance while his mother and little sisters huddled beneath their kitchen table. When I talk to him on the rusty landline 70…
I was 12 or 13 years old when I had my left arm intentionally broken by racist, highly privileged white kids at the school I was going to. And by broken arm, I mean broken. I was in a cast for three months.
Though I’d been bullied for years, at the time, I didn’t even…
The street bustles with a steady stream of visitors. Every now and again, one individual will pause, examining a store’s goods. Amongst this, Papa Noel stands outside too, his thin long-sleeve top protecting him from the chilly wind that moves through the shopping arcade. In one hand, he clutches a thermos; his other holds a…
Growing up, I always felt small. I’m half-Vietnamese, half-Chinese, and I live in New Zealand – so of course I didn’t feel like I belonged.
For a long time, I worshipped blonde wavy hair, white bread sandwiches over rice and, most, dish-washers – because my family’s was used to store plastic take away boxes.
Like…
I read an article once, by a man whose name I cannot remember, which attributed the differences between occidental and oriental cultures to the incidence of communicable disease. Asia, he argued, has historically been prone to outbreaks of diverse and deadly communicable diseases. As a result, foreigners were treated with suspicion, since foreigner people often…
You might remember in the month after Donald Trump was inaugurated back in January 2017 the thousands of protesters who turned out at airports across America to protest Trumps so-called “travel ban” -- more commonly (and rightly) known as the Muslim Ban.
This original ban barred entry to citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries: Iraq, Syria,…
On January 26, exhibitions are held throughout Australia’s campgrounds. The central themes of said exhibitions are that of patriotism and its associated behaviours. These grounds present a strange and twisted reality in which decency is substituted for brash lad-culture, extreme excess and environmental abuse.
As a single critic, it's impossible to review all of the…
It took 12 months of planning to get me on the plane for my semester abroad at North Carolina State University.
It was four months after I returned to Australia that our nearest school, The University of North Carolina, had a shooting on their campus, leaving two dead, four wounded, three of them critical.
Gun…
“It’s so HEAVYYY!”
Several heads turn my direction and the disapproving stares of strangers cause me to wonder if I said that aloud by accident. Or perhaps I’m just making a scene by dragging my backpack across the airport lobby tiles. Sure, I could always pile my crap onto a trolley and let…
BEEP, beep, beep
This tunnel is one of my biggest fears. I’m driving my car on the M5, about to go through the airport tunnel. Horns are blaring since no one likes peak hour, yet the pace is consistent.
The lights that line the walls start zooming past, and my mind does a little trick.…
I arrived in Stockholm, Sweden, in the midst of an unprecedented Europe-wide heatwave, the first overt sign of the climate crisis I noticed. My arsenal of heavy duty Kathmandu gear would sadly go unworn.
It was a Friday morning and I made my way to the Riksdag, Sweden’s Parliament, where I knew Greta Thunberg would…