Back in Sydney, our first task was to familiarise ourselves with our new housemate – Alex the Trauma Cat. We would be house-sitting (and Alex-sitting) for two weeks, while her humans had a much-needed break in Japan. Alex’s favourite place…

We had promised to visit a friend (Vimal) in Kerala for Christmas. One of those travelling tales – we bought a SIM card in Kuala Lumpur, got chatting with the guy in the shop, and found out he was from…