Surfer's world: how to get thrashed (and make friends)
This story… I want to tell it so badly; as much as I want to be a part of it. All good storytellers know that the best way to tell a story is from within. But to get that kind of access, you either have to have been there for years (an insider’s story) or […]
Thanksgiving assignment
Digging this seasonal piece from the archives… One of my favourite assignments because of the fact that Andrea has a lot of pluck and is more than willing to ‘talk turkey’ on the subject of overbearing bureaucracy that threatens to shut down our local food security. Nice coverage by Wendy Stueck on the food safety […]
Family first
A bit frantic this past month or so: Lib and I took the 5-kids and dog across Canada to see aging parents – some great contacts made, on both personal and professional fronts. Got older kids settled into university/college for another year. Blew cylinder in the new-to-us Suburban (no thanks to Canadian Tire – more […]
Father/daughter Fishing Trip
Sunset over Dolarog Wharf
El Nido, Philippines – It was amazing how fast it set, the sun. My back was to the shore as I wound my way through coconut treed lawn of the Dolarog. It was dark inside our hut, but an orange glare of light on a polished teak table drew my eye back out to the […]
Palawan: Island Hopping
El Nido, Philippines – It’s hard to hear over the one-cylinder banging of the banca’s engine. We left the kids of Papa John Center a while back and are now ‘holed up’ under the posh palms of the Dolarog – a water-access-only resort just up the coast from El Nido on Palawan Island. Talk about […]
How to pick a guide – Pinoy style
Location scouting in Laguna, Philippines yesterday, I was already up to my knees in brush when I thought to ask the man standing by the tree, “Meron bang ahas dito, po?” (are there snakes here, sir?) The man, in his late 40’s, looked calmly at me, twitched his eyebrows upwards and puckered his lips out; […]
Location, location… snake!
Warm raking light bathes the textured background of crumbling volcanic stone that juts upward from the sage covered hills. Ponderosa pines line the ridge, wind-bent but proud in the semi-arid terrain. Two coyotes skirt our perimeter and I assure my assistant, the stylist and our model, Lindsay, that they are more afraid of us than […]
Man Bites Dog
Hanoi, VN – A skinny waiter steps toward our table as I flip through a grease-stained menu of items I cannot pronounce. “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse,” I say to my buddy seated across from me. The waiter, now standing beside us, puts a pen to a thin pad of paper and […]
Yo ho, me hearties… yo ho!
On the small island of Panglao, south of Bohol, in the middle of the Philippine archipelago, local fishermen have turned dolphin watching into an commercial art form, but when it comes to choosing a boat – let the buyer beware!What began for us as a 3-hour tour almost turned into an episode from Gilligan’s Island. […]
Don't feed the animals
Now halfway into a short-term tour of SE Asia; it’s time for a family break to debrief and unwind from the constant cultural adjustments that we’ve been making since arriving here almost 2 months ago. We decide to work with a tour guide for a couple of days as we settle into Tagbilarin, Bohol and […]
Photo opportunity or opportunism?
Phone rang the other day… photo desk of national newspaper asks if I can accompany a writer to Big White ski resort, 90 minutes south of here. “Cool,” says I. “What’s the story?” “That Aussie, Leigh Barnier, that was killed in the avalanche…?,” says the PE, probing my reaction. “A reporter is doing a story […]
