Our plan was pure: Drive into the heart of the New Forest. In the morning, walk around the ancient town of Bucklers Hard and in the afternoon hire a couple of push-bikes and cycle an easy route though the New Forest — an easy track because, *blush*, I can’t actually ride a bike! The reality […]

When I was a little girl my parents had a holiday home in Christchurch, Dorset and we would spend weekends and sometimes longer there each year. I’ve only been there once or twice since they sold the house many years ago, and as we were in the area I wanted to pay the quaint town […]

We managed to sneak onto ferry in Yarmouth (Isle of Wight) and get back to Lymington (on the UK mainland) a little earlier than booked and pointed Shirley the SatNav towards our B&B to expedite a much needed bath for the two of us. The B&B sat on the lovely grounds of a mediteranean-style hotel […]

Since a lack of spoons had put muesli off the menu, we drove on to find a person to deliver breakfast into our hands in exchange for a few coins. Instead, what we found was our first entrant into my newly created Rubbish People section of this Website: The local village bakery that caught our […]

We spent three nights on the Isle of Wight: A beautiful island, to be sure, however dulled by almost continuous rain during our visit. Here are some of the highlights from our time on the island. Following the culture shock of a wet campsite–for which neither of us had adequately mentally prepared–we escaped to the […]

Slap mouth with upwards-pointing, open palm whilst saying “ah”. All who know me will doubtless agree that I am a romantic at heart. I really wanted to give SQ the warmest welcome into our UK tour: Snuggling up in a Native American-style tipi in the midst of the beautiful sunny countryside of the Isle of […]

We always knew that driving away from the flat for the last time would be a bit weird. Our plans to tour Britain before going further afield would mean that there would be no airport, harbour or train station; as is usually associated with a Big Trip. Rather, we’d just pack a few bags into […]

Continued from Buddha & Breakfast… As I and one of the other retreatants were browsing the weekend’s itinerary, we noticed worriedly that the plans for the evening included ‘chanting’ and ‘silence over night’. After dinner we all went to the shrine room to learn the second form of Buddhist meditation known as ‘Cultivation of Loving […]

…the alternative B+B I’m a planner. Always have been, always will be. Or so I thought, until my recent, and rather pleasant, encounter with Buddhism. Our decision not to plan our travels in any detail is hard for a planner. What will I have to organise and worry about? What if this, what if that? […]