Time for writing reflection on the slopes

I often manage a week-long skiing escape with my kids in February. This year, I couldn’t manage a whole week, but we did squeeze in a long weekend on the slopes near Rome. This hasn’t been a great snow winter, and our long weekend included some wet days and lots of poor visibility… where we could…

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Crossing the Dubai Creek on an abra

The abra is fun to watch as it crosses from one side of the Dubai Creek to the other, from Bur Dubai to Deira. The abra is a traditional boat made of wood that serves as a water taxi. The crossing costs 1 dirham, and is paid on board to the ferry captain. We had…

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Jane Austen was autistic?

I was reading an interesting New Yorker article that was reviewing a new book on the history of autism. In the article, they spoke about how much has changed even in recent years about our understanding of autism. There was also a short section on famous artists, musicians and authors we now believe may have…

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Favorite reads so far for 2016

I’m always pleased to get a good reading start to the new year. Luckily, despite a few duds, 2016 has started out quite well for me as a reading year. Here are my favorites so far (and I’m hoping there will be many more): The Last Summer Judith Kinghorn I enjoyed this atmospheric story, a…

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Kafka’s castle? Frýdlant, Czech Republic

If you’re in northern Czech Republic, just beyond Liberec and close to the Polish border, you’ll want to see the dramatic Frýdlant Castle in  the little town of Frýdlant that is dominated by its hilltop castle. This is said to have been the castle that inspired Franz Kafka’s famous novel The Castle. Following the Battle of…

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Do you give up on authors after one bad book?

I didn’t actually think that I did this, but I recently realized I tend to throw up my hands in frustration and not read authors anymore after one of their books disappoints me. This doesn’t mean just that a book’s not my favorite within an author’s oeuvre. But if I’ve dedicated a significant amount of time…

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Pining away for the Palm Beach resort, Maldives

I don’t know what it is about the first week of February, but whenever it rolls around I see I’m writing travel posts from tropical locales I’ve visited earlier. Apparently, I’m sick of the cold and want to bask in memories of lounging on warm beaches. This year is no exception. Last Easter, I was…

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