Tag: Travel
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I hate my body but I saved a goat
‘Hate’ is a strong word. My relationship with how my body looks fluctuates with my moods and is complicatedly enmeshed with my sense of self-worth, but at the same time at odds with my rational adult brain. Of course that would have made for a very long blog title. Besides, you’re probably here for the […]
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How to be a digital nomad without getting back pain
Picture this. You’re sitting in your refurbished camper van (complete with Scandi-wood paneling, LED spotlights and a sheepskin rug you bought for a hilariously huge amount of money at a farmer’s market). Your unrealistically good-looking partner has just brewed up a coffee on the gas stove. You’re sipping it in a earthenware mug, gazing out […]
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A taste of life on Terceira, a Portuguese island in the middle of the Atlantic
Four volcanos make up the island of Terceira in the Azores archipelago where I’ve been living for the past month. One is reassuringly dormant, three are less reassuringly active. Just across the water in Sao Jorge, residents wait with packed rucksacks for instructions to leave in case the thousands of earthquakes they’ve been experiencing this […]
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Trying van life in South Florida
I was 15 when I first decided I wanted a camper van. It was the year I read Scar Tissue, the autobiography of Red Hot Chili Peppers’ lead singer Antony Keidis, and I became enchanted by the idea of surf culture: long wavy hair, VW vans, colourful clothes and that hedonistic attitude of fun and […]
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Positive affirmations for body confidence on holiday
At 5am this morning I experienced an impromptu body confidence crisis when I caught a bleary-eyed glimpse of my tummy in the bathroom mirror and wondered for the umpteenth time how, despite being a healthy eater and working out furiously six days a week for the best part of a decade, I still harbour five […]
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At 31 I’m finally fulfilling my travel dream
For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to pack a rucksack, fly off to far-away lands and expand my knowledge of the world, myself and life through the medium of travel. But it turns out adulthood is full of these sticky little complications. Utility bills, for instance. Careers. Responsibilities. Things that you can’t […]
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What I’ve learned during a spontaneous weekend of solo camping in Sussex
How did I end up pitching my old festival tent by myself in 35-mile-an-hour winds and lashing rain after work on a Friday evening? I’d like to say that it was just a fun, spontaneous idea I had because I’m just a fun, spontaneous sort of women… but actually, it was more of a necessity […]
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Why David Hockney’s ‘A Bigger Splash’ is my favourite painting
I have a favourite painting. A large copy of it hangs in a white frame above the boarded-up fireplace in my living room. Perhaps it’s pretentious to tell you that I have a favourite painting. The art world feels very pretentious sometimes, doesn’t it? You have to know certain names, have a lot of money, […]
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Lying beneath a cherry blossom tree, I remembered that incredible experiences are everywhere
Last night I watched My Octopus Teacher on Netflix, a documentary about a filmmaker who, on the verge of a mental breakdown, gives up work to free dive off the Western Cape of South Africa every day. Wetsuitless, he slips into the cold, turbid waters of the South Atlantic Ocean every day (without exception, whatever […]
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Why are outdoor pursuits so white?
I had to scroll through seven pages of white people gazing over mountain vistas before I could find a stock hiking photo featuring someone of colour. And it’s not that my image search is powered by a neo-Nazi algorithm (I hope); it seems to be representative of what’s happening out there in the real world. […]
whalebeings 