Written wonderings
A personal collection of stories, poems, and vignettes.
Monologue. Love at first sip
An original monologue by Daniella Down about a serendipitous meeting at a cafe window. Written and performed on The Monologue Podcast.
Sustainability. Evolving tourism to save the future
Imagine not being able to travel to pristine beaches, colourful coral reefs, and untouched forests. A bitter pill to swallow in the short term for us living through the pandemic. But it could be an all-too-real actuality for future generations — maybe even our generation. Irreparable damage is being done to even the most robust ecosystems. And much of it thanks to over-tourism. The question is: can tourism be reconstructed into a force for good?
Short. Birth story
‘Don’t tell me.’ The midwife peered up from between my legs. At the last moment, I had decided I wanted to be kept in the dark about how dilated I was. The pain was already eye-watering with contractions coming thick and fast. The last thing I needed to hear were the words 'two centimetres.' I needed to stay positive and ignorance, as they say, is bliss.
Travel. World’s highest bars
Drinking top quality cocktails, vintage wine or fine barrel-aged whisky is a luxury that’s made even more luxurious when sipped on top of some of the world’s tallest skyscrapers. The sky’s the limit (and beyond) for these stratospheric bars that serve up delicious drinks paired with awe-inspiring views. Here’s the top of the top:
Travel. Make a Beeline for it
The concept is simple. The way Beeline points you in the right direction without forcing you along a set route reinstates a feeling of freedom for riders with its ‘less is more’ approach to navigation.
Vignette. Rain and whisky
It’s not first love. First love is passionate. All-encompassing, yet tentative. The kisses are gentler. You are selfless in your first love, you are willing to please. And when you continue to grow and change that first love no longer fits, you outgrow it like a shoe. Then loves after that first one take on forms of lustful nights and forcing triangles into circles. You feel things the second, third, fourth time, but it’s some other emotion dressed up as love. Mutton dressed as lamb.
Vignette. Serendipitous rendezvous
Then, as I walked past, she looked up. She couldn’t have meant to. It was one of those fateful coincidences in life that someone like me reads far too much into. Like that time last summer, when I got bitten by something. I would have thought nothing of it, but it was when I was at home and I happened to be watching Men in Black—classic—and that got me thinking. Bugs.
Vignette. Children of the rum
Somewhere far away in the Pacific Ocean, there is a cluster of islands—volcanic—jutting from the ocean like a stain left by a coffee cup on the map of the world. Far from caffeine-brown, the islands are more of a vibrant spattering of green and white. They were uninhabited until a small lifeboat of survivors from a large cruise liner happened to spy them in the distance.
Spoken word. Journey
A spoken word poem that was written in real-time on a train in the UK when the carriage suddenly filled with football hooligans.
A tremble, a quiver, a lick of disgust. Hot breath, stale sweat. Booze. Boozed-up and violent. Oozed hatred through nicotine pores. Sourer and sourer the abrasive shower of ignorance and aggression.
