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It's becoming increasingly difficult to go back to old Hanoi. The horizon is visible in only very few places as the move up to the sky continues. On clear days across West Lake, I used to be able to see...

If you visit one weekly neighborhood market in Istanbul, make it the one held on Mondays in Göztepe. The produce on offer is stunning, and the vendors are welcoming. But mostly, the thing about the Göztepe market is ... there's...

I subscribe to pretty simple food principles. I mean I'm not averse to eating complex flavours or reading about them but I'm unlikely to fluff about with dry ice or blow torches in my own kitchen. I'm dangerous enough with...

i met a new baby today. lyra. such a snuffly, squishy, sweet, tiny little baby. she came rather a bit sooner than her parents had expected, so although she’s been out for almost two months, it’s only just gone her proper birthday. we brought her a couple of t-shirts in gender-non-specific colours — and really, [...]

Dried Shrimp (Pulau Ketam, Malaysia), 2009 Old Manali Loom (Himachal Pradesh, India), 2009 Cholon Lunch (Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam), 2008 I hesitate to shill on EatingAsia but rent, veterinary bills, and road tolls don't pay themselves, and there's not...

We don't plan birthdays or anniversaries. There is something about the expectations built into "big days" that means they almost never live up to what one thinks they should be. Some years we remember them, and wish each other a...

When it's mid-July and the next holiday is not until after the summer, it pays to at least reminisce about the beach. About the endless blue skies and seas. About the strenuous bed-breakfast-beach-book-lunch-beach-book-dinner-bed routine. About wine on the bungalow porch...

The utter lack of creative juice evident in that title is indicative of the low ebb at which my brain is operating at the moment. Since we returned from Turkey a little over two weeks ago I've spent an average...

Australia’s Next Generation Broadband topic has been in news and politics for some time. We often see old media TV interviews with man-in-the-street persons. Sometimes these seemingly arbitrarily chosen persons say it won’t affect them in their daily activities, sometimes nominated persons say there will be a revolution in school, business and so on. Paradoxically, with this supersized pipe into the Internet, Australian politicians also want to clamp down on the Internet. Put in family filters. Track which sites you have visited, in a parental and policing way. A lot to shock and awe the layman.

But how backward are you? Does the Internet figure in your life at all? Some people love to take out their Nokia phone circa 2000, with numbers and cosmetics rubbed off and tell the world – “Hah! I love being a Luddite – a phone is for the rare phone call, when I deem it necessary. I don’t need the Internet on my phone”  Are you one of those?

Me? I’m having an off day and reflecting on what I do to enjoy my day. I listen to music – a thing I’ve done for many years, pre-Internet. I shoot photos – an activity much invigorated by the Web of interaction with like minded folk. I watch scraps of Old Media TV but really that’s for when I want to dull my brain and go to sleep, Doc Martin and Masterchef not withstanding.  Old favourites like the cop shows, medical and House dramas – too much of the same  is getting quite, quite disinteresting.

But TED on the Web – if you haven’t woken up to a reaching out of minds, hop on and envision with the thought makers. A nice way to use the Internet speed, bandwidth and quota.

I've documented my predilection for caffeine pretty thoroughly over the years. Coffee has taken precedence in the pages of this blog. But I'm a bit of an old git 'cause young Hanoians are throwing tea down their throats as if...