Wednesday is Halloween so let’s go back to Halloween four years ago. I was in Rovaniemi, in northern Finland. I’d spent the day in town, wandering along the river because everything was blue and white and silver and frozen and yes, I nearly died of hypothermia. Although in hindsight, having survived a white-out blizzard in… More Fortune telling in Finland
Back in 2002, I went on a school trip to Russia. I’ve written about part 1 (Moscow) here and part 2 (St Petersburg) here – but there’s more! Earlier in the year, I rediscovered a stack of boxes under my bed, containing assorted precious things from my schooldays, mostly. If I’d stopped to think about… More Documenting Russia 2002
Here are 10 things you need to know about Iceland before you go: tips for surviving the climate, making the most of your holiday and most importantly, not being an inconsiderate tourist leaving permanent damage behind. 1) Do not tread on the moss. No, never. Especially not for that Insta-perfect shot. That moss will take… More 10 Things You Need To Know About Iceland Before You Go
About this time last year, I bought an Osprey Farpoint 40, every travel blogger’s favourite backpack. I bought it because I didn’t really have a good-ish bag for shorter trips, that could be easily and conveniently transported, and also because I saw far too many people raving about it for a really long time. So.… More Review: every travel blogger’s favourite backpack
Last month I went to my first ever Longleat exclusive passholders’ event – the Sky Safari launch. I’ve been a passholder for nearly two years and I do like to go to the Halloween fireworks and/or the New Year ones, go to the Festival of Light and go and see it all in summer. But… More A cavalcade of balloons at the Sky Safari
Last week I told you about becoming a British Fencing Core Coach but at the same event, Try Inspire Qualify, I also – much to my own surprise – became a tennis coach with She Rallies. This is Sunday. So, with the fencing qualification done on Saturday, we still had another day. Part of this… More I’m a tennis coach!
You may have seen the imminent Katla eruption in the news lately, a huge & deadly volcano about to blow Iceland – and European air travel – to kingdom come. Or is it? Well, we don’t really know. As a species, we still don’t know much about volcanoes and we certainly can’t predict with any… More Is Katla about to erupt?
I spent last weekend at a training event and the upshot of it is – I’m now a qualified fencing coach! It’s the most exciting thing to happen to me since I attended the same event two years ago and became an archery instructor. I can now reach teenagers two weapons and I have the… More I’m a fencing coach!
The year was 2012 and I was in Mayrhofen, at the Altitude Comedy Festival. The idea is to ski or snowboard all day and then watch comedy all night. A winning combination – except that I’m not very good at snowboarding and I can’t ski to save my life. I opted for snowboarding lessons –… More My first high-altitude paraglide
I wasn’t going to bother with this post because I stuck a picture of my diary/scrapbook/journal at the beginning of every diary entry but this thing is my baby and I want to share it. I find that if I don’t have things to look back at, I forget things. There are huge swathes of… More Keeping travel memories: my Laugavegur scrapbook