ttravel
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  • 5 minute read

Nomad no more

  • 19 May 2020
Australians boast the inglorious irony of being the best off people in this pandemic and yet we’re potentially…
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  • 1 minute read

Defining horizons

  • 6 March 2020
The memory and the dream are one and the samea phantom limb that I would break my own…
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  • 1 minute read

Mediterranean (from Tarifa to you)

  • 24 February 2020
I watch the weather where I was and where I want to be; too cold for summer, too hot for winter, too comfortable to be close to anywhere ...
iidentity
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  • 3 minute read

On recovering Anglicans, vegetarians and nomads

  • 13 November 2018
I like to say my boyfriend is a recovering Anglican. He's actually not even Anglican, he just happens to go to an Anglican church and I just happen to enjoy having a go at Sydney Anglicans. What I really mean when I say he's recovering is that he is no longer doctrinal about his faith and how he practises it - in fact, he's ardently against legalism. Similarly ...
cculture
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  • 3 minute read

Going for glocal

  • 22 November 2017
The other day my dad kindly informed me that if I ever stood for politics I’d need to…
ttravel
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  • 3 minute read

City love (and lack thereof)

  • 4 July 2017
There are lots of things I love about you, Sydney. I love your dazzling waterfronts, stretching out from the Sydney…
cculture
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  • 3 minute read

Australia: Not the place I thought you were

  • 17 May 2017
The other day after work, I was flowing with the peak hour crowd down Anzac Parade, when I witnessed something awful. An Aboriginal man was heckling and shoving an East Asian man. The Indigenous guy was yelling obscenities and things like "Go back to where you came from!" to the suited up Asian guy, who was trying, literally, to shake him off. That was Awkward thing Number 1. People just watched. And did nothing. That was Awkward thing Number 2. By people, I mean mainly Asian people. The University of New South Wales appears to be predominantly Asian, even the law faculty - a contrast with the College of Law at my own alma mater. That was Awkward thing Number 3. And I did nothing because, frankly, I'm both Asian and female. I actually thought I might get hit. That was Awkward thing Number 4. It made me think about how Australia is not the place I thought it was when I was little.
ffaith
Re-entry. Still from the movie Gravity.
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  • 3 minute read

367 days after re-entry

  • 27 September 2016
Ten years ago, a lady named Debbie asked me if I was studying Spanish because I wanted to be a missionary in South America. At the time it was a seriously long bow to draw - I in fact had no better reason for studying Spanish other than Age of Empires and the Spanish national football team. Once I started learning the language, I discovered how beautiful it was to the ear, the mind, the tongue. But even then I didn't have any particular interest in Latin American culture. I had even less interest in becoming a missionary. Debbie and I are unlikely to cross paths again, but what she said turned out to be rather prophetic.
iidentity
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  • 3 minute read

What feels like home

  • 23 February 2016
4,000m above sea level and 400,000m from the closest shore of the Pacific Ocean, playing beach volleyball every Sunday afternoon in the park somehow became one of the defining elements of my life in La Paz. Now, at sea level and right on the shores of the Pacific Ocean, playing beach volleyball every Monday evening in Manly is becoming an anchor, a touchpoint, to each week here in Sydney. It's funny, the unlikely things that make me feel at home.
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  • 1 minute read

The opposite of vertigo

  • 3 February 2016
The opposite of vertigo Is your wings poised for flight and your feet stuck in cement; Is the skyward pull that makes you ill to be on the ground. Gravity versus your dreams. The opposite of vertigo Is conversations about the weather and getting angry at traffic; Is display windows taunting you with things that won’t make you happy. You can see right through them. From the pit of your stomach to the tip of your tongue the air here’s thick, swallows up inspiration. The opposite of vertigo Is the sickening sensation of settling; Is being shackled when you should be airborne. The opposite of vertigo Is the curse of those who come down from altitude; Is the Icarus in you and me.
cculture
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  • 2 minute read

How South America messed me up good

  • 12 January 2016
People always ask me about my time in South America. Some are genuinely interested, while for others it's the polite and logical thing to ask. In either case, the truth is that these conversations have started to get a bit repetitive and I'm often left wishing I could say more than: that Latinos are warmer; that Andean dishes contain too many carbs; that working with survivors of child sexual abuse was hard as you'd imagine but so rewarding; that I'm not sure how to answer your question about how good my Spanish is. The worst thing is that I can't seem to do Bolivia and Ecuador justice - not in a brief conversation that could turn to a different topic at any given moment. So below are a few noteworthy things I don't generally get to share about the impact that my time in South America has had on me as a person and who I am now.
wwork
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  • 2 minute read

Next stop: Sydney

  • 1 December 2015
Tomorrow will be my first day in Monday to Friday, 9 to 5, paid employment in Sydney. There is…
iidentity
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  • 2 minute read

Almost-no-longer-twentysomething

  • 29 September 2015
“You’re not 25 anymore, y’know,” my sister says. She’s being gracious. After another year abroad, I re-enter my…
ttravel
Bare feet on grass next to snow, with small wildflowers growing.
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  • 1 minute read

Cold feet?

  • 4 August 2014
Thanks to the infamous Canberra winter, I think I have cold feet both physically and metaphorically. I’ve just…
ttravel
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  • 2 minute read

The photos you delete anyway

  • 6 May 2014
I’ve finally gotten around to the task of going through the 12,000+ photos I took in my two years…
ffaith

down and up again

  • 15 September 2013
Settling back in had been going pretty well. It was good gradually catching up with friends rather than…