Bruno Cooke's Blog, page 2

Knock-kneed and coughing

We went for a walk through the trees up the hill by the beach.The sun was in the sky, I didn’t want to underestimate the heat.We drank all of the water that we’d brought up to the top, we could feelour temperatures were on the rise and we were still an hour from the lee.And when I called your […]

Short excerpt from an essay about The Internet

A month or two ago I posted on here saying I would share more of my writing, and resolving to do so has helped me to write more. There’s a lesson for you! Well, I’ve been working on this essay about how my work as a freelance writer and journalist has shaped my understanding of […]

Not for a lack of sun

Kungs Cafe Lao, no apostrophe,is a haven, a cave that smiles –discrete, it doesn’t ask questions.Dried gourds hang from bamboo rafters.The coffee, Lao coffee, is thick and sweet. Pots of dangling greens interrupt the sunlight; strings bearing delicate ceramic figures curl slowly when the fan’s arc curves.The side wall is the same, and more: butterflies, […]

Changes of plan, masala chai, and ancient wisdom

I’m eating Indian food in a hotel in Vientiane – dal, vegetable pakoras, coriander sauce and masala chai. You know, I had dinner with three German women in Vang Vieng (a town north of here) at an Indian restaurant, and not one of them had ever had masala chai = had never lived! They didn’t even […]

The mark we made on the earth

You came at exactly the right time,skin, eyes and bones in a heap on the step,flash and twinkle, trundling into viewlike a carabao – long neck, head up –smile swinging in a threadbare hammocknot far from the river,neon-lit by the glimmer from a glass cabinetwhose light, reflecting off key lime pie,gave passers-by a cartoon-like, disembodied quality. […]

Notes from northern Laos: Vieng Xai to Nong Khiaw

Everything they told you about Laos is true. It’s basically a magical land. There are whole squadrons of albino carabaos, the earth and dust are tinged with a Seuss-esque purple, kids run along the road in Spider-Man costumes and onesies, hollering ‘bye-bye, bye-bye!’ as you pass by, men and women of all ages beckon you […]

Colleen’s a big believer in feelings

Colleen’s a big believer in feelings. She knows exactly what it sounds like when her man, or one of her men, goes down on one knee because she’s heard it three times. Each time more momentous than the last, she hearsthe soft collapse of carpet as it gives way under his weight,the weight of man, of good […]

Highlights: A unique carabao encounter in northwest Vietnam

I had a great deal to be grateful for today, and I wrote it all down. Well, some of it – there were things that happened after I’d put my pen away that made today a Very Special Day. Firstly, the mountains west of Hanoi (I’m in Thanh Hoa district) are stunning, and provide the perfect […]

Evan

Evan came here to find love and that’s um,basically that. A chance to date without the weight of his physical insecurities. This experiment allowed him to be judged for who he is as a person  (a program coordinator at a surrogacy agency, favourite band Morgan Wallen,would-be father of two, meal of choice a well done steak)rather than […]

The elephant and the worm

Chastity is completely in love with Nick. They both do pilates at the weekends, have blue eyes and know the SPF of coconut oil. His love language is words of affirmation. Nick knows sashimi, which Chastity finds sexybecause it shows that, if nothing else, he’s cultured. Sophisticated, probably travelled. And anyway there’s plenty besides:  He says he’s a […]