To the disappointment of every tabloid journalist in the UK, the late May bank holiday was not a 'total washout' as predicted. These are from today's walk around Lullington Heath 🙂
Montenegro’s Herceg Novi through my cheap camera lens
If Herceg Novi were a person, and not a small town located at the mouth of Montenegro's famous fjord-like Bay of Kotor, it would be a person with multiple battle wounds - perhaps a missing limb or two, definitely with severe PTSD, and a lot of stories to tell. Over the last few centuries Herceg …
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Supermarkets: the beating heart of America
I recently got back from a brilliant week's holiday in Massachusetts. My friend had her wedding just outside a little town called Groton by a big, quiet lake surrounded by forest. It was beautiful, all of it. The wedding, the lake, the white wood-clad New England houses with their dolls-house dormer windows and immaculately striped …
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Why can’t I be on permanent holiday, and other thoughts
Last week I spent five and a half days in the rural Languedoc Roussillon region of France at the house my grandparents have spent 27 summers restoring from a ruin. I spent 87% of the time worrying about having to come home. The post-holiday blues set in before I'd even left my flat for Stansted. It's …
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I think my Italian language app is hiding a dark truth
Since the weekend we spent in Tuscany on our honeymoon, we've both been using an app called DuoLingo to learn basic Italian. (By 'we' I mean me and my new husband, a term that still makes me feel like I'm a child playing an imaginary game of mummies and daddies). A dream is forming in …
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A video of some of our US trip
I made a video of the first few days of our trip. I intended to do the whole thing but this free software is not the best. Anyway, enjoy 🙂 https://www.wevideo.com/embed/#775817101
Vegas is hyperreality: I think I passed Elton John in a casino but it might not have been him and it doesn’t matter anyway
That's the thing about Vegas. It's hard to tell what's real and what's not. The portly man in a baseball cap wading through throngs of tourists in the neon-flashing halls of Caeser's Palace may well have been Elton John. Why not? According to the giant billboard outside, he was scheduled to perform at the hotel that weekend. Then …
How to look outdoorsy
I meant to write this post before we went on our U.S trip. I was inspired when we were shopping for holiday stuff in Millets. It is a very inspiring place. I like the great outdoors. Out there in the countryside they have all the good stuff. Space, weather, nice smells, hills, pubs with fireplaces, lambs. …
Matt and Zoe’s Insta-challenge: USA
We should have known it was a dangerous mix: Matt's best man-to-be and a packet of felt tips. But we received his Insta-challenge, and we accepted it (until we ran out of Internet halfway down Highway 1 and forgot what the challenges were). Here are our submissions...bar a few The most la thing Truthfully, the …
‘Hihowareyou’ – the American way
Don't fall into the trap of thinking the girl behind the counter in Taco Bell actually gives a shit about how you are. She doesn't. No one does. It's just a thing American people say, quickly and without looking up from what they're doing  - presumably to make sure you know they really, really don't give a …