All the things I do instead of writing…
Have you ever eaten a Mars bar when really, really hungry? I once got to the shaking with cold sweat stage of hungry, because I had forgotten my wallet at work. I eventually asked a colleague for £1 for the vending machine, because I didn't want to admit that I was so ditsy I didn't... Continue Reading →
I was going to finish writing up all my tips for climbing with children, before we took our children on a weekend bouldering trip to Fontainebleau in France. As usual, I didn't quite get around to it, so I'll give anyone who's interested an account of a) just how great Font is with kids, and... Continue Reading →
Holidays are more delicate than one might imagine. On the face of it, you pick a destination, a hotel and some flights, on the basis that they fulfil one or more or the criteria you might have listed. I used to write lists of criteria for holidays in order to help me decide, but now... Continue Reading →
Summer holidays are always too short; most particularly so if one decides to drive 1500 miles for only one weeks’ holiday. It was still worth it, as it always is. We went back to the campsite at La Bérarde, a location that is possibly the most remote in France. It is about 50 km south... Continue Reading →
The rugby 7s tournament was on in London on 20th May, which meant an exodus of the entire male part of my husband's family. So the women and children decided we would take ourselves off to Center Parcs in Woburn. I was quite curious, as I've never been to a holiday park. My parents never... Continue Reading →
A colleague pointed out to me the other day that it would appear I no longer travel anywhere at all. This isn't quite true; I just don't update this blog any more, preferring to write my rather dull, and still only occasional "this is my life" missives over here. So, in the intervening two years, since... Continue Reading →
As predicted, this blog has somewhat died a death. Its cousin, The Resting Writer , is where I actually write stuff. So here's an old account of my weekend in Los Angeles in Summer 2008. I was on a business trip that lasted about ten days, so I had a weekend in the middle. It... Continue Reading →
Berlin I can never quite decide whether I like Berlin. My father and sister live there, so I visit quite often , and I have got to know it quite well over the last 10 years. It has changed quite a lot in that time, becoming increasingly like every other German city, but with much ruder... Continue Reading →
Travel writing is the description of a different reality. For this reason, I have always found it almost impossible to write anything interesting about my travels, mainly because I become so instantly absorbed within this new reality that I fail to write down unusual impressions - once you've been in Delhi for a few hours,... Continue Reading →
As ever, when anything changes in my life, I descend into introspection. For no particular reason, I start to find my gilded existence tragic, and turn into a navel-gazing drama queen, nervously necking champagne at a wedding and sloping off home in tears because they’re playing Oasis and I have just drunkenly stepped on my own... Continue Reading →
The resting writer 