Fresh, visceral take on an old theme – food, sex and intimacy intertwined
Shame opens with the protagonist Brandon (Michael Fassbender) lying in bed half-naked with one hand under the sheets. Immediately, one of those faux Confucius sayings came to mind, “Man who goes to bed with hard problem, wakes up with solution in hand.”
After reading some reviews on Sha [...]
Not just all about ME but all about Mobile as Dubai gets Smart
I am writing this in my room at Lanson Place overlooking what may not be a very attractive view but yet what is to me quintessentially Hong Kong. Foggy morning, tall narrow buildings packed next to each other like sardines, the constant hum of a city that never sleeps.
This is the weekend i [...]
Letter from Dubai: An amazing first day as we count down to WIT Middle East
It’s becoming a familiar journey – my third visit to Dubai in three months. It’s one of those places that’s closer in my mind than it really is. At seven-and-a-half hours, it’s actually closer to Europe than it is to Singapore.
It’s a beautiful sunset as we land – lovely shade [...]
Letter from Cardiff: A tale of flowers, food, fact and fiction
It’s early March and the daffodils are out. Narcissus flowers are blooming (left). This time of the year usually, the flowers are still hiding. But the last weekend I spent in Cardiff, it felt that spring had sprung.
Not too soon though for the poor folks in the British Isles – there’ve b [...]
Hot. Hebat. Hangat. Indonesia. Women. Travel.
I think I broke a personal record last Saturday. I went to Jakarta. I spent eight hours there. I spent it all in a shopping mall. And I didn’t buy a single thing.
I was there to speak at a Wired Women Weekend event and instead of imparting what little I know, I ended up learning a whole lot [...]
Letter from 30,000 feet: The difference between SIA and Emirates A380 Business Class experience
I am sitting at 30,000-something feet as I write this, cocooned in my flat bed on a Singapore Airlines A380 to Zurich. I feel like I am in a space capsule – I can now charge all my devices and yes, there’s now also On Air wifi.
There goes that last bastion of peace. I check it out but think t [...]
Letter from Berlin: Same, same conversations but different
Arrived in Berlin yesterday, my annual pilgrimage to this city to attend the world’s largest travel trade fair and thinking, it’s amazing how everything’s changed yet nothing has.
As usual, I meet fellow travel colleagues on the flight. And as usual, the same conversations are struck up.
[...]
Letter from Jakarta: A city that’s all about the possible, however impossible it may be
One never zips around Jakarta – that is a fact – but I feel as if I have just zipped in and out of the city and in that short time, felt once again the pulse of a city that’s all about the possible, even though it may sometimes feel impossible.
For example, immigration was impossible on the [...]
Mobile’s not big in Dubai, it’s HUGE and even babies do it
If there was one key message I took away from my three-day visit to Dubai, it’s how huge mobile is and how pervasive mobile adoption and usage is in the region. “Everyone has a smartphone here,” my friend told me, “and we do everything on it.”
And if I was already impressed in Shangha [...]
Letter from Dubai: Excitement is in the air as 2020 and online promise beckon
My first day in Dubai over and I can feel the excitement in the air – the reason, a four-digit number, 2020.
It may be six years away but that number is emblazoned everywhere I look and everyone I meet is citing that number – the year of the World Expo – as why this city is once again bulli [...]
