Monthly Archives: April 2015

Simple Joys

Tokyo. A shopper’s wonderland. My friends are green with envy at my good luck. Sadly, I am not a woman who lives to shop. Basement food halls, malls and department stores make my eyes blur with panic. Too much stuff. … Continue reading

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Seducing the Soup

Turkey, like the Philippines, is located at a geographical and cultural crossroads between east and west, right on the cusp of Europe and Asia. Turkish cuisine is a synthesis of centuries of cultural and culinary fusion: a patchwork of Mediterranean … Continue reading

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“There is Hell Waiting Here”*

The sandstone Sphynx bares its chest like a beacon above Anzac Cove. Bleak, grey, weeping seas, diluted with the blood of thousands, Johnnies and Mehmets both. No beaches worth their salt, nowhere to land, the King’s young allies culled by … Continue reading

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The Whirling Dervishes

A different city. A different dance. Not London but Istanbul. Not Sadler’s Wells but the Galata Mevlevihanesi. Not a ballet, but a timeless, hypnotic ritual dance created by Persian poet, prophet, philosopher and mystic, Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi-Rumi. The Mevlevi … Continue reading

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