On Saturday June 10th, I will turn 36 years old.  I love getting older.  Each year I get wiser, blissfully more deranged and, reportedly, better looking.  I’m told that I am afflicted with the ‘George Clooney Effect’ where, although I wasn’t unattractive when I was younger, I somehow become better…

Now that there aren’t people on three continents tapping their feet and looking at their watches, waiting for me to turn in my LP manuscripts, I’ve gone about the task of re-training my body to sleep past 7:30am. It wasn’t easy, but after a solid week of staying up until…

Have I mentioned that I’m a juggler?  Yep, for, oh god, 24 years now.  I started young and as such I was one of those punks that learned everything five times faster than the adults, who mostly loathed me as a result.  There was a window of opportunity somewhere in…

You know, the supposed ‘culture shock bell-curve’ is a bunch off ca-ca.  Some weeks it feels more like the ‘culture shock perfect storm’.  I’ve suffered another overpowering wave of pessimism recently.  Some of you may have noticed that I have a streaky love-hate relationship with my second home and I’ve…

That’s right, I mounted those word count demons, rode them like a drunken camel and prevailed! (With careful guidance from my editor, of course). Thus concludes my duties with the Romania and Moldova chapters for Europe on a Shoestring 5 and Eastern Europe 9. Jesus does it feel good to…

Very quickly…  I am in the last-ditch, “where the hell is it?” editing phase now.  If it weren’t for the one week deadline extension that I lobbied for and received back in March after suffering several delays due to bad weather and bureaucratic impasses, I’d be in the LP gallows…

I normally spend a ludicrous amount of time in front of my laptop, but the past three weeks have been particularly intense. So much so that I think my eyeballs sinking into my skull, trying to retreat from the screen as a natural defence. Moreover, for the past week I’ve…

Well, I’m in the final stages of editing now. It’s been more of an emotional rollercoaster than I would have guessed, but that’s mostly my fault. I’ve been riding the highs and lows of the deadline boogie. My flagging organizational skills and my inability to see the big picture while…

The latest flip-flop in the Romanian bird flu issue says that there is indeed bird flu here!  They found it in a factory in Brasov!  Swear to god this time!!!  We are all being warned not to eat any chicken from this factory, but how are you supposed to know…

I happened on a reality TV show a while back that redefined the phrase ‘fresh out of ideas’. The show focused on the lives of a bunch of Americans teaching English in Taiwan. Sweet Jesus…  I don’t think a more tiresome and monotonous group of people exists in nature, yet…