A Life After Pink
What are we up to now?
Digging for the Black Diamond
It must be a misunderstanding. A classic "Lost in Translation” moment. I thought we had come to hunt for truffles. The Black Diamond. That musty-smelling, expensive fungi, adored by toque-wearing chefs in Michelin restaurants. I thought there would be dogs, expert...
12 Weird and Wonderful New Years Eve Traditions
It is the morning of New Years Day 2018 and I am having a ‘loony dook’. Any idea what is? Let me break it down for you. Dook is a Scottish term meaning to dip or bathe. While loony is what I must be, because here I am, running, willingly I might add, into the...
Why English Sparkling Wine Is So Damn Good
It is the year 1652, and Christopher Merret – an English Scientist, Physician, Naturalist and Mettalurgist - has just documented how to put the fizz into English Sparkling wine. This is over 30 years before the French monk Dom Pierre Perignon was alleged to have...
The Time We Saw Santa At The North Pole
The North Pole Alaska, that is. Not the actual North Pole which is in fact 1700 miles North in the middle of the Artic Ocean and can only be reached by really intrepid explorers, of which I am not one. And it wasn’t the real Santa. Instead it was a 13m tall,...
Why Walking is the Best Medicine
I realise how much my life has changed over the last four years, when I become over the top, pee-in my-pants excited about a pair of walking boots. They are tan leather, clunky, unflatteringly wide fitting, and for the next two weeks, under the guise of ‘breaking...
What Do You Do When Your Wife Has Breast Cancer?
Life. It’s a funny thing. We are all living one. We are all striving to earn a wage, have a home, own some things and be alive tomorrow to do it all again. Some wish to ride through the ranks of the company they work at. Others simply try to survive each hour of each...
Unwanted Company on an Isle of Wight Solo Hike
It is day four of a six day solo hike along the Isle of Wight coastal path, and I am under attack from vicious winged commandos. And there is nowhere to hide. I have fought cancer. I have been burnt, broken, bruised and bloodied. But these black bugs, these tiny...
Sun Surfing and Street Food in Croyde
Do it with passion or not at all. That's how the saying goes. And shouldn't it apply to all of us, whatever it is that we do for a living? Sometimes though that passion can be difficult to maintain if you’re in a job that is nothing more than that. Just a job. A way...
The Ultimate Guide to 36 Hours on a Vietnamese Train
Hour One Boarding the train in Saigon is fine. A bit of a scrum through the turnstiles, a bit of a shock to find an elderly Vietnamese couple making themselves comfortable in our little cabin for two. There are apologies and head nods from all sides as they move to...
Something Bad Has Happened. Again.
I have always been afraid of something bad happening. As a child, when the war in Iraq began in the 1990s I was convinced that was it. It was all over. I worried constantly that in exchange for an amazing family and friends that I adored, something bad was bound to...