Our new passports arrived! I'm not sure what I'm missing, as every official bit of info says the post-Brexit colour is blue, but this definitely looks black to me. Not gonna lie...much as I'd still prefer burgundy, the blue-black is pretty smart, and I like the embossed national symbols on the back. When I posted… Continue reading UK Passport Renewal Online
Tag: travel
How Not to Keep a Travel Journal
Best. Wedding Present. Ever. Well, it was the one that impressed me the most that day anyway: a large shiny gift box filled with fancy goodies from Paperchase. When I opened it up it seemed like the most thoughtful and tailored collection of life-enhancing little items in the pile. The Book Journal was an obvious… Continue reading How Not to Keep a Travel Journal
Things You Never Said to my Husband
Back in September, MT* spent about 10 days on a solo holiday, enjoying a reunion with a group of friends who had travelled together back in the day. The timing wasn't great, given that I’d not quite recovered from six weeks of solo parenting in the summer holidays. But I was happy for him to… Continue reading Things You Never Said to my Husband
Congo Sketch: The School Run at Walking Pace
It's another typically untypical morning in Congo, where no day ever goes quite as planned. Today, our driver isn't with us, as he had to take his child into hospital overnight with suspected malaria. So MT has taken the car to work with him, and I've hitched a lift with our neighbour to drop the… Continue reading Congo Sketch: The School Run at Walking Pace
Exploring Dorsoduro
The great advantage of visiting an iconic city for the second time is that the pressure is off - there's no longer that urgent impulse to tick off the major must-see tourist attractions within a short time frame. A few years ago I had the privilege of a romantic trip to Venice, where we made… Continue reading Exploring Dorsoduro
I Miss Getting Lost
There was a time when I would frequently get lost. I could turn from my desk to my bookshelves to look something up, and find myself an hour later lost in the opening pages of a dozen well-loved novels. I could stay at my desk, having sat down to do half an hour of preparation,… Continue reading I Miss Getting Lost
How Congo is More French than France (and one way it’s a bit like the Big Apple)
Before arriving in Congo we had high expectations. We were not coming to Africa for the first time - our year in Uganda had dispelled many of the apprehensions most people would have about life in the sub-Saharan continent. There was much to enjoy and appreciate there; we’d had a good lifestyle (although that is easier… Continue reading How Congo is More French than France (and one way it’s a bit like the Big Apple)
A Frustrated Nester Fiction Nugget*
I promised a little while ago that if I got to 100 facebook page likes then I would publish a 'nugget' of fiction here on the blog. I wrote this flash fiction piece about 18 months ago, while I was at Circle of Missé. A goal this year is to maintain a steady stream of… Continue reading A Frustrated Nester Fiction Nugget*
Breaking Out of the Bubble
Cliquez ici pour lire cet article en français. ‘Tu as peur? C’est ça?’ No, I wasn’t scared to visit our housekeeper (ménagère) in her quartier, not in the way he meant anyway. But it had been two months since she’d had her baby, and he was right to wonder. I had plenty of reasons I… Continue reading Breaking Out of the Bubble
The Leaving Season
It was around midnight, but still warm enough to sit outside the Irish pub in the French town on this early summer evening. My leaving night had taken us from the hip café restaurant in the old town, via a relaxed wine bar, to here, where we had taken a table beside the boulevard, looking… Continue reading The Leaving Season
The Frustrated Nester 