Category Archives: Uncategorized

After leaving school in the summer of 1952, I saw a job advertised in the Sunderland Echo for a clerk at a firm of Chartered Accountants. I applied by letter and got an interview, it was quite daunting; my first attempt at joining the grown-up workforce. My mother came with me, I was terrified, IContinue reading “Cooking the Books”

We spent the day on the beach, reading, enjoying the sunshine, and swimming in the clear turquoise sea. We were on the quietest side of Gili Meno and there was nobody around. In fact, we didn’t see anyone until the late afternoon, when a young local guy approached us. ‘Have you got a plan forContinue reading “Gili Wizardry”

My maternal grandfather held a high ranking position in a number of British overseas naval dockyards, and my mother grew up in countries such as Gibraltar, Bermuda, and the tiny Mediterranean island of Malta where she lived as a teenager from 1930 until 1932. In 1956, my mother returned to Malta with her own family.Continue reading “Finding Alhambra… in Malta”

Some of Lombok’s most spectacular coastal scenery can be found on the southern shores of the island. To get there is a journey through time, a harmonious integration of legend, tradition and reverence to God, where shirtless old men in checked sarongs still eke out a living from the sea or the dry farmland. Lime-greenContinue reading “The Beauty & the Beasts of Southern Lombok”

Style is timeless. The key to looking great isn’t about following all of the latest fashion trends. It’s about finding your style, developing a sense of self and always staying true to your own aesthetic. My personal style went through a fair number of questionable phases. This is the story of how I lost my groove before embarking on a journey to rediscover my true sense of self.

I remember standing in the school playground when I was ten years old watching a solar eclipse with my classmates under the supervision of our teacher. The world didn’t go particularly dark but that’s because it was only a partial eclipse. I’d never seen one since, until I watched one in totality in the clearContinue reading “The Diamond Ring”

The train was crowded, but not, surprisingly, with other Inter-Railers. Every one of the small compartments had been taken over by Moroccan families; plastic carrier bags and cardboard boxes blocked the luggage racks. They had hung their clothes over the doors and windows; we were far too intimidated to enter. We moved up to theContinue reading “Crossing the Border”

With Mum now living with Terry and embarking on a new life, I took one look at this picture and decided, “I don’t think so”. Mum had already given us up once to my alcoholic father who could barely take care of us, but he always paid our school fees and holidays abroad with theContinue reading “The Frying Pan”

When I told my friends I had booked a package holiday to Greece with a company specialising in holidays for single people aged between 30 and 49, they laughed at me. “You’re going on a singles holiday, hahaha. It will be full of sad desperate people looking for love and marriage.” My flight ticket arrivedContinue reading “The Singles’ Holiday Club”

One October morning, Jebeh Nyoman Yanti walked along Sanur Beach, as she did every morning with her friends, looking for customers to bring back to the market stalls. Little did this 20-year-old Balinese beach-seller know that this would be the day that would change her life forever. We live in Holland, and on that wonderfullyContinue reading “From Bali to Holland… With Love”

Our timing was perfect. We found ourselves in Lisbon at the height of the ‘Festas de Lisboa’, an annual festival of music and dance, which takes over the entire city every year throughout June. The merry atmosphere is akin to a party; a full-blown fiesta of colourful floats, dazzling fireworks, raucous street parties, music, danceContinue reading “Festive Fun and Toenail Trauma”

When Daniel was about two-and-a-half years old, I took him to a cake shop. He was motivated by sugar as most children are; he never got given it in my house but when he went to his dad’s he did, and all the good work I’d done during the week would be undone in aContinue reading “The Cake Shop”

Our final destination was a gorgeous white sand beach and blue lagoon known as Oludeniz. We had been enticed by postcards of the place and had decided to relax there on the last day of our holiday. After several hours of swimming and snorkelling and lying in the sun, my boyfriend decided to have aContinue reading “Stuffed in Turkey”

It seemed as though the timeshare company had kindly given me a few days to settle in and get over the jetlag, when in reality I had just missed the start of one training course and was having to wait six days before the beginning of the next one. Nevertheless, I was keen to startContinue reading “A Career in Timeshare… Really?”