2

Malacca in retrospect

Singapore-Malaysia border Both my parents were born in Malacca, Malaysia, so as a kid, we went there at least once a year to visit family (mostly Mum’s though: my aunties, uncle and grandfather). A long while ago. It has been …

1

Birthday Pictures

My sister Chris lays emotional claim to my pictures of seagulls. “They’re my birds,” she says of the ones that were in the big book of pictures I once gave her for Christmas.

13

In flight

30 April 2014, Singapore: I’ve been in Singapore for six months. This is the longest time I’ve been here since I left fifteen years ago. 

4

On walking

Walking is in my blood. My father was never one for it, but my mother is a walker. It wasn’t unusual for her to walk for hours for the hell of it, with unfailing regularity. Now in her mid 60s, …

3

Absence

The thing that haunts me, is how normal my father’s absence feels. Has felt from the beginning.

8

Life, death and gratitude: A year of gypsy living

2013 has been the best year of my life so far. I say this not only for the great parts of the journey, but the shitty bits too. I say this because through it all, it felt like I’d actually lived for the first time in my life, rather than just existing for no discernible reason.

1

On bright stars in dark nights.

2013 was year where my desire to go walkabout with possessions in a bundle at the end of a stick – or a couple of bags in my case – came true. I’ve been on it for a year and …

22

Numbering loss

My entire understanding of my father’s death at this point, rides on numbers. September 4 – the stage of cancer he was diagnosed with.

11

The sound of heartbreak

But how do you get away from the memories? That’s what she’s left with. The missing words to a prayer she can’t recite. Trying to find all that’s lost. – Mark V. Krajnak, from JerseyStyle Photography’s Friday Noir The day …