Sunday Blog 247 – 23 August 2026 For a while, a week at least, my body still imagines how I’ll walk through my sixth-floor Paris apartment for my nightly toilet stop; return to my low-slung bed with its blackout screen on the dormer window in the attic roof. How in the morning, I’ll slip a …
Author Archives: pipbrennan
The Mill France
Sunday Blog 246 – 16th August 2026 And now to the meat of my French trip; the writing retreat. You may perhaps recall my unsuccessful French writing retreat experience in September 2025, when I bolted 48 hours into a nine night stay. With bare-faced lies about an invented family emergency, I managed to get a …
Paris (again) and Rouen
Sunday Blog 245 – 9th August 2026 I’ve been back in Perth since Wednesday 5th August. But I will continue to wallow in photos, and plunge myself back into the sights, sounds and smells of my French Extravaganza. Sunday Blog-wise, I’m still only up to Saturday 18th July on the trip, when I boarded the …
Bordeaux Love Note
Sunday Blog 244 – 2nd August 2026 As I cling to the last days of my fabulous five weeks in France, I’m eking out the travel blogs, still several weeks behind reality. You can expect more after my return to wintry Perth, as I savour holiday moments like macaroons. On Friday 10th July when I …
Walking the Chartres Labyrinth
Sunday Blog 243 – 26th July 2026 I’m a couple of weeks behind in posting; this was before the Bordeaux fires. Thinking of everyone impacted by fires across Europe. It all started with my misunderstanding about the distance between Chartres and Bordeaux. When initially planning my holiday, I mistakenly thought I could walk the Chartres …
A Week Alone in Paris
Sunday Blog 242 – 19th July 2026 Last Sunday blog, I was checking into my Airbnb at 7am on Tuesday 30th June, thanks to my kind host who took pity on me, a long-haul flight survivor. I didn’t dare test the wheeled backpack-plus-suitcase combination on the metro from Charles de Gaulle airport, opting for a …
It’s not the getting there, it’s the arriving*
*With apologies to Ralph Waldo Emerson, who never took a long haul flight Sunday Blog 241 – 12th July 2026 I can hold myself back no longer. Travel spam incoming. Perhaps starting with my getting-there snafus will make this series on my French odyssey a less insufferable. Here goes. I’m rewinding us back to 30th …
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Post-traumatic Growth is a Thing – Part Three
Taming the Triggers Sunday Blog 240 – 5th July 2026 Today I wanted to tackle the concept of triggers, and offer a message of hope. Back in 2002, in the early days after the assault, on Mother’s Day I took my daughter Zoë to a sweet child-friendly cafe with a playground, for a meet-up with …
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On the eve of a journey…
Sunday Blog 239 – 28th June 2026 I’ve more to add to my post-traumatic growth series of blogs – but today just wasn’t the day. I needed to take a breath, bask in the nervous excitement of the-day-before-travel. Tomorrow I fly out to Paris for five weeks of research, writing, working, catching up with friends …
Post-traumatic Growth is a Thing – Part Two
Sunday Blog 238 – 21st June 2026 In the middle of the night, 10th May 2002, I woke up, lay in my bed for a moment or two. Then I heard the soft padding of feet. Perhaps that sound had woken me up. A subtle sound that seemed to come from the kitchen. Could that …
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