Author Archives: JJS

🇬🇧 Crabs, cyclones & croissants This morning, I rise before the rooster. And let me tell you, that smug feathery alarm clock was not amused to be upstaged. But needs must—we’ve got a pre-dawn rendezvous with a hire car return, … Continue reading →

🇬🇧 Vanilla, rhum and wallet regrets Second (and tragically, last) full day on Taha’a, aka The Island of Sweet Scents and Empty Wallets. Today’s mission: vanilla shopping. Why? Because although we still have pods from two years ago lounging lazily … Continue reading →

🇬🇧 Sharks, rays & rain dodging in paradise (Subtitle: Finding Nemo, Losing Wifi) 5 AM. The drumroll of torrential rain on our lovely Polynesian bungalow roof yanked me from my dreams. I’d love to tell you it was soothing, but … Continue reading →

Draft Planes, pickups and pints of Hinano Let me preface this by saying 6am is not a civilised time for anyone to be awake voluntarily unless you’re a fisherman, a bird, or someone deeply committed to watching the sunrise with … Continue reading →

🇬🇧 Of sharks, cheese and ghost hotels Last night, we dined in style—or at least in darkness—at the illustrious Cook’s Bay Hotel, which is a mere 20-minute drive away if you enjoy hairpin turns in pitch blackness with the occasional … Continue reading →

🇬🇧 Sharks, punch and the eternal battle with jet lag 🪸 I have made a stunning discovery: I love sleeping under a “moustiquaire.” Not just because it saves me from becoming a human buffet for mosquitoes (which, believe me, is … Continue reading →

DRAFT 🇬🇧 Singing in the rain (and the jacuzzi) They say when it rains, it pours. In Moorea, it auditions for Broadway. I woke up at the ungodly hour of 3 a.m., courtesy of either jet lag or the Polynesian … Continue reading →

🇬🇧 Moorea – Day 1 or Wet, wild and wonderfully lost or Surviving Moorea: One rainstorm at a time 🐠 Ah, Moorea – the tropical paradise where dreams come true… and where four ferries apparently try to race each other … Continue reading →

🇬🇧 DRAFT Welcome to LAX: Where dreams come true (and you’re yelled at immediately) We touched down at LAX exactly as planned — straight into the arms of America’s most welcoming tradition: being shouted at. Nothing says “Welcome to the … Continue reading →

🇬🇧 Getting there – Part 2 Pit stop with extra Andouilelette Ah, “transit.” That magical state of being where you’re neither here nor there, but you are legally allowed to spend 24 hours eating and drinking your way through one … Continue reading →