Warn The Town, The Beast Is Loose

For the last few months of 2014 I wasn't in the best of places.  The weather was cold and dark, the previous year I had been in sunny Singapore having the time of my life, half of my friends were travelling the world, my job was boring, and I couldn't find anyone I wanted to be my boyfriend.  I was stuck in a rut. On the first weekend of the new year, I woke up feeling pretty down.  I checked facebook and saw my travelling friends had uploaded some amazing photos, and I made a decision that I wanted my own adventure too.  I went online and booked a Trek America 21 day tour of the USA, with the intention of continuing to travel and not coming back.  I am a stubborn cow and I could have just booked flights to wherever my friends are, but I didn't just want to follow them across the globe, I wanted to do something on my own first. I paid my deposit, started to look at what travelling options I could do from the USA when the tour finished, then totally freaked out. Lik

I have been taking my camera out and about with me a bit more (inspired by Martin  who's taken some cracking shots of Madrid). The other day Dan and I went up the Monument , then strolled along the river bank for a few miles.  We ended up at Vauxhall and hopped on a bus home, it was pretty nippy, I could no longer feel my feet and had snot dripping all down my philtrum (that word sounds so rude yet it's so innocent).  The Monument is quite a nice little tourist attraction - very reasonably priced at £4 plus very good exercise walking up all 311 stairs, with a nice enough view at the top.  I don't recommend if you're of a large and unfit disposition, or if you're afraid of heights - the spiral staircase is quite narrow and seemingly neverending. I think when you live somewhere and see it every day, it's easy not to spot the beauty of it because you're so used to it, so pretending you're a tourist is a great way to capture some of the things you take f

I first dallied with internet dating back in 2010, when me and Lisa were freshies in London.  We set up profiles on Plenty of Fish (being careful to have random usernames so no one would be able to tell it was us) and sat back and waited.  Whilst she managed to find the love of her life after about 3 different dates, I am still waiting for my Prince. My very first date was with a really nice but very shy guy back in August 2010.  I only really went on the date out of curiosity, I had my eye on someone else who wasn't from the internet and I was just biding my time until a he came to his senses and dated me. We arranged to meet in Hyde Park and have a picnic, he was an hour late because he didn't realise the Jubilee line wasn't running that day.  I just sat in the park and read - it was a nice day and I didn't mind too much, probably because I knew I was never going to date this guy anyway.  The date was pleasant enough, but he was very quiet and I did all the talkin

Just keep pedalling is the advice I wish I had known when we hired mountain bikes today and went to Bedgebury Pinetum.  On the first section of the track, I went through a HUGE puddle, got freaked out by how much deeper it was that I was expecting, stopped pedalling, lost my balance and fell sideways into the cold water.  I really wish I had it on video. I have wanted to try mountain biking for a while but never got round to doing it, so was pretty happy when Sepha agreed to come with me, and even happier when Ben and Jaime also tagged along as I haven't seen them in AGES. We convened at mine, piled into the car and headed down to Kent for the day. The parking in the pinetum is pretty extortionate at £9.50, but the money does go back into the maintenance of the area (which is very well kept).  We hired bikes for 2 hours from Quench cycles who were really friendly and gave us a free map and a group discount, making it £17 each rather than £20. We started off on the