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 …
A short history of personal rejection I once went out with this guy. I thought he was all right, you know, nothing to write home about, just a regular Joe, good looking and nice enough. But he seemed distracted. Like he was just being polite in having a drink with me, even though I …
If you’re like me (i.e. a master procrastinator, a self-sabotage genius and a time waster extraordinaire), then you’re probably wondering what’s wrong with you, how come you can’t get off your arse and pull your shit together to do things that seem effortless to others (like, I don’t know, write a book, start a blog, record a podcast …
Don’t you just hate Valentine’s Day? If you’re single, you wish you had someone to share it with, someone to bring you flowers and chocolate (or to bring to) and kiss and cuddle with on a cold February evening. If you’re in a couple, then you feel like you ought to do something special, but …
I didn’t really want to go to London. I didn’t want to return to the world of news and reality, commuting, delayed trains and, let’s face it, since it’s January after all, disgusting weather. I was perfectly happy in my bubble, perfectly content and embedded in my own slice of rural France for over two …
