A Public Inconvenience

No matter how prepared you think you are or how seasoned a traveller you might be – there are times you will be caught out. We were collected from the ship at 7.00, setting off for 2 whirlwind days in Saint Petersburg, Paris of the Baltic, Jewel of the Neva… First stop – the Peterhof

Holed up

Some things I noticed in New York

Back in March 09 my pal Bindi and I abandoned our husbands to ten days of looking after themselves so we could take a little jaunt of our own off to New York. You may recall in the piece Planning for New York on the Cheap, that we made a zillion plans and hoped to get

Museum of the Occupation – Tallinn

I have many stories to tell about visiting Estonia and while some include unexpected tears, most are very beautiful. This one is not. Visiting the Museum of the Occupation in Tallinn was chilling. Not sure what took me so long to get to Tallinn. I had wanted to visit ever since I was a little

All My Trains (Chinese train part 3)

Previously on Trains of Our Lives, our fair heroine (me) survived a death-defying descent from the upper berth of her miniscule train compartment. She has just made it through a trip to the filthiest loo on five continents. Today’s episode is once again brought to you by haemorrhoid cream, incontinence pads and of course, ointment

Trains of our Lives (Chinese train part 2)

It occurs to me the saga of the train ride to Xian was so full of melodrama, angst, chance encounters, intrigues and things that weren’t what they seemed to be – it qualifies as a full-blown soap opera. Today’s episode, is therefore brought to you by your favourite haemorrhoid cream, the latest improvement in incontinence

Paradise – on a white paper plate

A long, long time ago, back when I lived in the USofA, I lived in Rochester, New York. In a very bad neighbourhood. It was the kind of neighbourhood you read about in the newspaper and no sane person would never ever go there at night what with the crack dealers and prostitutes and parolees

On the way to Lahemaa Woods

A more magical  Estonia tale – a visit to Lahemaa woods with my cousin Kaupo and his wife Kadri. Estonia is a tiny country, and these woods are tucked up in the northeast corner – getting close to the Russian border. Though they have been ‘managed’ i.e. harvested and replanted, this particular stand of trees

Pigs are Pigs and that’s that

This is a true story – about trust and betrayal – about things I believed in that turned out to be the most horrible lies. I put my faith in them – the pigs. They seemed so honest and genuine – asking me so nice if I would do a proper photo shoot of them.

An Angel at My Table

Jane Campion’s delicate, almost leisurely construction of Kiwi Janet Frame’s autobiographies is one of those rare films that draw you completely into its world, so while watching you lose all sense of time and place. Frame’s life unfolds at so naturally, you may not notice the overlap of the three actresses (Alexia Keogh, Karen Fergusson,