Yesterday, while driving back from picking-up the laundry for Maison de la rivière and pointlessly browsing the usual crappy French radio stations, Amy Winehouse’s Rehab came on. I was already home, but I sat in the car until the song was over, reliving a particular period of my life. Rehab was released in 2006, but …
As some of you might know, I’ve been working on The Love Project for seven years. Wow! Seven years is a very long time. I’m not going to lie. I’ve had my fair share of periods of despair, discouragement and wallowing, as I was trying to balance the demands of work, moving countries, renovating houses, setting up a new business, being married and wanting …
The legend goes that Abraham, the father of the three Abrahamic religions, married Sarah who was barren. By God’s grace, says the Old Testament, Sarah gave Abraham a son, Isaac, when Abraham was one hundred years old. The same God later asked Abraham to show his faith by sacrificing Isaac. But the story goes that, when …
Once upon a time, I had the pleasure of interviewing writer Lionel Shriver at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival. I remember how nervous I was when I saw her sat in a rattan chair, luscious tropical background behind her, sending lazy clouds of smoke into the air from an electronic cigarette (one of the …
It’s a beautiful summer evening and my husband and I enjoy a drink on our terrace. An enormity of green stretches in front of us as far as the eye can see and the songs of the cicadas compete with the reassuring sounds of the river. We’ve just finished renovating the farmhouse next door, the …
A friend once told me a story about a woman who desperately wanted to get married at a particular (very expensive and very popular) venue. Say Chiswick House. Even though her then boyfriend hadn’t asked her to marry him yet, she went ahead and booked the venue for the next available slot which was in …
Today marks the two-months anniversary since we got on a one-way flight from Stansted to Biarritz to begin our new life in France. But it feels more like two years. Here’s how I celebrate it. I wake up to see rain falling in millions of tiny droplets outside my window and my mind is empty …
“I’m very good at the past. It’s the present I can’t understand.” ― Nick Hornby, High Fidelity Today I’m going to treat you to my top 5 most memorable ‘ghosting’ experiences of my life. In chronological order. My Father My Father was the first man who ever ‘ghosted’ me and he only partially ‘ghosted’ me, …
Exactly three years ago, I met Alistair. I had been conducting The Love Project all year and I was frankly getting fed up with it all. I was so exhausted from all the dating that didn’t lead anywhere and had gotten to a point when I just wanted to focus on myself and my writing. …
You must wonder what it took to make me go through The Love Project. As with all big decisions, it takes something dramatic. It took one last straw to break the camel’s back to motivate me to want to change my life or a particular aspect of it. Until then, my actions in love were governed …
