AnD Where To Next

04/05/2019

My life (trade the bath for a shower with hot running water and) this is my heaven 😍

Life doesn't have to be complicated to be beautiful.

14/04/2019

“Wild women are an unexplainable spark of life. They ooze freedom and seek awareness, they belong to nobody but themselves yet give a piece of who they are to everyone they meet.
If you have met one, hold on to her, she'll allow you into her chaos but she'll also show you her magic.”
Nikki Rowe

Mr. Fox at Munkholmen Island, Norway, c1900.

21/03/2018

Sorry I've not posted here for a while.....it's a long story😔 However, today was a good way!! please pay kindness forward .ski

I found myself with a free morning today, so I posted on Favebook to reach out to find someone local, who I didn’t know, who really needed some help with their skiing and to offer them a ski lesson free of charge.

Diane contacted me and explained she arrived in Tignes in December. She said ‘I came to Tignes to fall in love with mountains and skiing, I’m bored of going up and down the nursery slopes on my own and have lost all motivation and haven’t been out skiing since February!’

Diane works as a local chalet host and was finding it hard to understand why so many people would spend so much money to come skiing. When I met her this morning I told her I would show her why and it’s possible that she will love skiing by the end of the morning too.

We started on the nursery slopes and developed her skills and knowledge to make skiing more enjoyable for her.

Once she had mastered this we headed up Palafour (a blue run) for her first ever ski up high in the mountains. On the way down Diane said ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you! now I understand why so many people love skiing!’

Diane now feels she has the confidence to ski blue runs on her own and is hoping to join her colleagues and friends skiing in the mountains over the rest of the winter.

Well done Diane, I am so happy to have been able to help you today!

www.TORI.ski

05/01/2018

Couldn't have said it better myself...

Hiking - "I don't like either the word or the thing. People ought to saunter in the mountains - not hike! Do you know the origin of that word 'saunter?' It's a beautiful word. Away back in the Middle Ages people used to go on pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and when people in the villages through which they passed asked where they were going, they would reply, 'A la sainte terre,' 'To the Holy Land.' And so they became known as sainte-terre-ers or saunterers. Now these mountains are our Holy Land, and we ought to saunter through them reverently, not 'hike' through them."

- John Muir

For more stories, please subscribe to our newsletter at https://upscri.be/078173

28/12/2017

When your guests have you shotting vodka at 730pm and your boss comes in and makes you down red wine but you still hold it together and be professional serving 3 course meal....I'd like to thank my BVI training 😂😍

14/12/2017

While shaving my legs this morning my first thought....'was I mad to remove a thermal layer in these conditions?!' At least I don't have to use the hairdryer to dry my legs anymore😂

12/12/2017

Week 1 of my crazy decision to take a chalet host job in Tignes. Now many of you ski lovers will tell me how lucky I am, what an amazing opportunity, how I'll fall in love with skiing.......but you have to remember much like the boat thing, this decision was based on me hating being cold, not being able to ski and not being a confident cook😂 Met my lovely team the night i arrived (9 of us and 2 managers). I nearly fell off my chair when they told us 200 people had applied for these jobs. Days 1 and 2 were great cause I didn't go outside much, only to go to the pub by clinging unto a rope that took us down the side of a building (short cut😂). Day 3 I got to see my beautiful chalet, day 5 got snowed in with over 70cm of snow falling in 1 day (this was the day I asked myself "what the x&*^ have I done?" ....And people here tell me you get that feeling a couple of weeks in when you've been stressing over guests😂). Day 6 I got my ski pass and ski equipment....I think mine will mostly be in my room looking pretty😂 Night 7 I finally got to sleep in my bed that I'll have for the season. Tonight went to the pub to make my shopping list as guests arrive on Saturday........not sure how many posts I'll put up here -we'll see how many stupid things I do to make you all laugh. (View is from my sink in the chalet....one I'll see a lot off)😂😂

05/12/2017

So as I queue for my flight to Geneva I am updating as promised. What a busy 5 months - seeing 'old' friends I haven't seen for 12 yrs +, running out of time to see others (sorry Debbie and Helen-next time) and getting so drunk I don't remember chatting to others (Adrian Tantrum). Meeting friends from traveling days back in UK is always weird (Nat and Kay). Birthdays, new babies, little people I had never met. Serving salads, over heating defender, new UK destations that I will return to one day (aka Cornwall). New puppy and lots of poo, soft play fears, red wine and bubbles in a London park. But the one memory (or lack off) will be the broken arm saving puppies and kittens.....(off course I bloody wasn't, I drunk 2 bottles of red wine and fell of a kerb after a night out with my 'sexy chefs' Lex)😂 A huge thank you to my amazing friends and family, especially the Os (Helen) who let me squat at their's (their 9, 6 and 3 yr old know what squatting means) Love to you all and see you all later ###xx

29/11/2017

I wish this wasn't true😂

Smh

05/11/2017

Very conversation I had with a friend today!!!!

28/09/2017

I love this - I am trying to do more to cut down on the chemicals in my life, (I am struggling with them found in red wine though) ;-) ....our grannies knew so much more than we gave them credit for!!!

Ditch store bought products and make your own with this handy infographic. You might be surprised at just how versatile everyday natural products can be… Click Here to Download PDF File to PRINT:  72 Uses For Simple Household Products Limiting the amount of products you bring into your home will...M...

08/03/2017

So, it took me 2 &1/2 weeks to Google the name of the district I'd been stay in that whole time (I knew it began with P, that's enough info for me)😂 Now 3 &1/2 weeks in I thought I should do some research on what I want to do and see. The moment you realise you don't have enough time to do everything you want! DOH!!!!

05/03/2017

Well what a strange week.....you lot know I don't often get all soft and weird, but I had to reflex.......I have had emails from 3 people I haven't spoke to in almost a year, if not more (just random, 'how you doing' emails), I've emailed a few who I haven't spoken to in too long (for no other reason than a 'how you doing, sorry I'm s**t at being in touch') and then the gods align the planets so that I meet a chap randomly in medellin I haven't seen in 7 years... there is a reason why I'm talking to you all this week. I don't care what it is, just glad you are all out there and in my life's journey 😘 (that's not to mention meeting the beautiful Marcela, who I hadn't seen since 2025, but I can't tag her because we keep forget to take a photo together, so until we do, she doesn't get a mention)😂
P.S. Remind me to tell you about Wednesday night later, I can't post two stories in one night, that's way to giddy😂......

01/03/2017

Look at this small world!!!!! It's been over 7 years since i seen this fella in England and i find out yesterday he's in Colombia. Tonight he passed through Medellin, like the rock star he is. Sorry it was short but so glad i got a hug.... with Iain Hill

20/02/2017

So, I had planned to update you all for week now with my observations....... "you know you are in a country of honest people when you give the bus driver 20,000 (Colombian peso) instead of 2,000 and he gives you back 18,000 (a lot of countries would ask me for 20,000 because I'm paying 'tourist tax' (into their pocket))😂....then today I ordered a milkshake and when I was 1/2 way through the girl come to top me up with the rest of what was in the blender.

20/02/2017

Love it!!!........ the article really tells us nothing, but it's made me think "maybe I'm not odd for wanting to travel alone, but just really intellegent"😂😂😉

Could your IQ determine your travel style?

19/02/2017

I was lucky to get through this shambles, and it was twice in 1 week (3 different grillings)!!! I have been to many places but none makes me feel quite like border control in US..... One of the last grillings I had was "do you not know our relationship with Iran?" Oh how I had to hold my tongue from telling him about the history since 1953 or say "yes I do, and do you know why?" I fear this mess is going get worse.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sportsnews/article-4236988/Dwight-Yorke-banned-US.html

Yorke, 45, said he was prevented from entering the USA due to an Iranian stamp on his passport. He was due to travel from Doha in Qatar to Trinidad and Tobago but was stopped in transit at Miami.

16/02/2017

Another country, another pair of sunnies....let's see how long these ones stay with me!!???!! The last ones last 3 weeks and 3 days.....I was on 1 boat for 3 of those weeks!!!!😂

13/02/2017

If it wasn't you phone charger when you entered the dorm it's not your phone charge when you leave......i spent the morning sending the bitch love😂 Its all ok because got to meet a lovely local when I went to buy a new cable.

On another note, when you keep smelling a nice smell randomly throughout the day and then you realise it's yourself wearing the body spray you treated yourself to yesterday-its been a while since I've smelt of anything😂

12/02/2017

I just arrived in the city of Medellin yestersay. I was checking into a hostel, finding my passport mumbling to myself 'what am I doing' (its been 5 months since I've stayed in a hostel, so always a bit scary getting back into it) and the dude stood next to me, caringly said "oh has it been a while since you've been backpacking?" ....... he was probably thinking "I wasn't even born when you started backpacking"...i didn't know whether to laugh or cry😂

So last night I did my usual go out for 1 beer....2am later I'm sneaking into my dorm.... At least my sense to age ratio hasn't improved😂

09/02/2017

You know your leaving when you're sat on the ferry 'leaving' the BVI groups you join when you arrive! Thanks everyone for a fab 7 weeks. Loosing 3G as I cross into American waters. ......wish me luck😂

03/02/2017

This has been home to me on and of since August 2015.......when I watch this I see why I fell in love. As a traveller you don't want to fall in love with 1 place however I explain BVI as "the man you fall in love with but you want to say no to" and today I described it as "My hurricane hole" in my my life aka 'my safe place'

Back to the British Virgin Island, 2016

28/01/2017

SAY YES UNLESS YOUR LIFE'S IN DANGER!!!!!!! You'll end up in St. Thomas on a boat at latitude 18°

23/01/2017

And that my friends, is our 1st world brainwashing from birth. We must stop thinking we are better than people in our countires when we turn up with our great ideas to 'save' them. We often do more damage than good.

14/01/2017

Extension granted. 3 more weeks in bvi.....and I've even got a plan for 9th Feb!!!!!!!!

15/12/2016

That snow was a bit cold so I baled on Canada!!! 😂 Breakfast I'm Carrot Bay, after a hug from my girls last night..... (no photos of reunion because I was travelling for 26hours and looked as rough as a badger's backside)😂

14/12/2016

I decided to embrace this Canadian snow as all the locals keep telling me "this isn't even cold yet".... The wrong kinda snow to build a snowman😢 but I made my first ever snow angel!!!!