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Exploring San Mateo and drinking really bad tea
Andrew and I spent our first full day in San Mateo yesterday. We both woke up at 6am, feeling a bit jet-lagged but unusually perky for that time in the morning. Breakfast was a joy – “avocado toast” as they say here, accompanied with a poached egg and a cup of tea – we may or may not have brought with us 1000 Yorkshire teabags weighing more than 3kg. Needs must. We spent most of the day getting to know the local area in Downtown San Mateo, visiting various shops, cafés and continuing to get very excited by the enormous cars. We have discussed cars, and we are so far…
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Day 1: “Welcome to the colonies”
San Francisco watch out…Andrew and I have arrived! After an 11 hour flight, where we consumed vast quantities of gin, Baileys and wine, we arrived at the airport at 2pm West Coast time, stood in a very long queue, and were welcomed to the USA by a friendly passport checking man. A good start. I can’t quite believe it has finally happened – we are moving Stateside. Andrew has booked us a lovely Airbnb in San Mateo for a few days while we search for an apartment. We are in San Francisco Bay Area and I am overjoyed that even in November it is warm enough here to wear just…
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Escaping to Greece for a weekend during Covid-19
This has been one strange year! Like many of you reading this post, my life of travel and adventure came to a crashing halt the moment the UK government announced we were going into full lockdown mode. Even now, seven months later, we are living in a world of ‘fear and uncertainty’, or at least that’s what we’re being told. I have experienced many moments of joy, laughter and silliness during the Covid-19 crisis. Yes, being a self-employed travel journalist is not the ideal career for a pandemic, but I have soldiered on and made the best of it. I even spent a month trying to flog home-made dinosaur earrings…
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Memory lane: diabetes and international airports
As a travel journalist, I have been very lucky to visit many interesting destinations around the world, from Japan to the Maldives. Travelling with diabetes has rarely caused me too much hassle (apart from in the US – more in that in the future). However, I have had a couple of interesting experiences in international airports when it comes to taking my insulin through security. Unfortunately, it is not wise to store your insulin in hold luggage as airline travel can cause both the luggage and insulin to freeze, which may prevent it from working properly. As a result, I always carry all my insulin and diabetes equipment in my…
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FreeStyle Libre: my new best friend?
This is my first post about my diabetes, and I am going to keep it fairly short. Today I finally got sent my first FreeStyle Libre: a fancy flash glucose monitoring system that allows you to scan your arm like a barcode to check your bloodsugar. As long as you scan the sensor at least once every eight hours, you can see how your bloodsugar changes over time, tracking if it is heading for a high (hyperglycemia) or a crash (hypoglycemia). This is very cool. The first time I attached the sensor on my arm was a little scary as it has a rather gnarly needle – admittedly I had…
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London’s Farm away from Home
This week I decided to take my lunch break at an unusual location in South-East London: Mudchute Farm. The 32-acre site is a registered charity and is open all year round free of charge. It is also the largest inner-city farm in Europe, with over 100 animals roaming about. I first stumbled across this metropolitan oddity in 2014 while taking a stroll through Mudchute Park with my best mate, Jenny. One minute we were walking past a bunch of kids kicking around a football, the next we were surrounded by sheep and goats. My friend, Hattie, and I spent a delightful hour watching pigs, donkeys, sheep, goats and even alpacas…
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London Gay Pride – Proof Love Happens Here
We invited Andrew’s sisters, Sarah and Alison, to come and stay with us this weekend. We had a packed schedule planned including a Sherlock Holmes themed Escape Room and a meal at Band of Burgers in Brick Lane. I was also keen for us to head to Trafalgar Square on Saturday for Gay Pride, an event I have sadly managed to miss every year since moving to London in 2013. This particular one was extra special as my friend, Aaron, was performing on the main stage as part of Pride’s Got Talent. We arrived at Charing Cross at around 12:30 and the crowd was just starting to assemble, with people…
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British Summer Time at Hyde Park – Punk did not win the day!
The first day of July marked our trip to Hyde Park to watch a stellar day of music headlined by Green Day. I was particularly excited about watching The Stranglers and The Hives, the latter band famous for their legendary live performances. This was my third time at British Summer Time, having also had the pleasure of watching Blur and McBusted (oh yes!) rock their socks off in previous years. We arrived at around 3pm and although it was decidedly grey, the weather forecast Gods had promised us sunshine and we weren’t to be disappointed. Alas despite a flawless line-up and fantastic weather, BST was a resolute disappointment. The spirit…
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Newquay, Cornwall – One Fabulous Trip, One Furious Cornish Man
I recently spent a long weekend in Newquay in Cornwall. We couldn’t have been luckier with the weather and the whole place seemed totally devoid of tourists. My best mate, Jenny, and I love to pack in as many activities as possible when we travel. This time it was zorbing and surfing. The former was a great success – being thrown down a hill in a giant inflatable ball may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I loved every moment. The chaps at Cornwall Zorbing Park recommended we head to Newquay Surfing School to book our surfing lesson. The place is run by 3x UK surf champion, Adam Griffiths,…
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It All Ends in Beautiful Italy
We arrived in Salzburg tired and a little gloomy, so were less than thrilled when we had to lug our bags for 20 minutes to find Hostel Muffin, which was located in the middle of nowhere. This was without doubt the worst hostel I have stayed in: not only were the staff rude and the rooms revolting, there was a €50 fine if you lost your key! I was almost pushed to tantrum-mode when the grumpy woman behind the desk told us we would be sleeping in different dorms, despite booking a three-bed room. After an unusually bad sleep, we woke up at the crack of dawn ready to stomp…