When I mentioned to the hostess at the reception that we wanted a room with a proper view, I wasn’t prepared for what was about to unfold. It was our second day in Greece and we had just checked into…

For the longest time, my brain has found it hard to internalize Friday as a working day. This is probably because of the culture in the industry that I work for. When I was a junior analyst about six years…

I have been longing for some adventure for a while now but no opportunity seems to crop up. At least every two months, the wanderlust in me experiences the urge to get out of my cocoon and do something out…

At 7.00am, after siting through numbing cold at the foyer of Melia Hotel (Athens) for about 10 minutes, the call from the travel agent finally came through. Our bus, a black Mercedes coach was waiting outside the hotel. It was our…

I have been running Lil’missbelle for a little over two years now. The blog was conceived as a memoir of my first-born daughter Xena, something she would look at when she’s a feral teenager who thinks that her folks are…

She’s bilious and easily provoked, like a woman on her menses. Or a village bully hungry for a fight. I will walk into the house from work, and from the kitchen, she will advance jubilantly with her hands in the…

I have been experiencing writer’s block yet again. The last time I struggled this hard was in July, right after the monstrous CFA exam. I went to Champagne Ridge in Ngong, stared at some hills from 6.00am for about an…

I walk into the hotel bar, a quintessentially intimate space with about five mahogany tables that rest on a thick grey rug.  A long counter stretches at the far end. The room smells of elegance. It is deserted save for…

“So where has the sun gone mama? ” She tilts her seat a notch lower to get a better view of the sky as she shoots me the question. “It’s tired, just like you and I. So, it has called…

You must find yourself chewing over this time and time again. I bet you at least once every week, you lie on your back in your bed staring at the crack on the ceiling and you wonder,  “What do I…

Everything that is meant to go wrong, will go wrong. Ever heard of that maxim coined by one of those ancient physicists? I got a taste of that yesterday, and a very bitter taste for that matter. Right after my…

We had about 30 minutes to kill before our taxi picked us up from the hotel to head to the airport. It was our last day in Istanbul. We had just wound up a refreshingly magical cruise on the Bosphorus- a…