Europe may be in the midst of a cold snap but sunny, welcoming Madrid is in a world of its own. And I’m very happy to be there enjoying its delicious charms.

Seven days turning sleepy, snowy Norway into the new girly holiday destination. We didn’t mean to have that much fun, we just couldn’t stop ourselves…

Highlights: the friendly’n'funny people we met, finding the arctic equivalent of Pizza Hut, dog sledding & snow planting, the Northern Lights (photos coming soon I hope) and finding after 48 hours that we no longer cared that beer was eight quid a pint.

Michelle just got back from 12 days touring beautiful New Zealand with her Mum and the blog, “travelswiththemothership” is a brilliant diary of their time together. Brought back a lot of memories of roadtripping with my own Mum last year.
travelswiththemothership has some mouth-watering food refs, highly amusing anecdotes (nice one on the hire car..) and some beautiful photos. Have a read

A last minute roadtrip down to the glorious Cornish coast.

Miles & miles of open, pretty ‘a’ roads, great cliff views and heaps of interesting clouds…

The perfect weekend set up: discount card for the bar, student & local crowd, free wifi, greasy fish’n'chips down the road.

Messy surf, breezy walks, a cracking Chilean pinot, and sunburn.

Yeeeoow :)

With Kate in town for just 24 hours we went in pursuit of fun and decided to mix it in Shoreditch. We got our fun, plenty of it, and some of the best food I’ve had since being back in the UK.
The crowd was pretty funny – deeply, deeply, archeologically cool, lots of focus on primary colours, and non too interested in our main-stream giggly chat. It seems we don’t talk Hoxton…

Six perfect days at Lake Annecy with my little giselle.
Doing all our favourite things but attempting them at a gentle, relaxed pace.
Breathing the amazing air, drinking (pore-ously and pot-ably) the delicious water, baking in the gorgeous sunshine and then, unfortunately getting soaked in full on mountain rainfalls.
Et après…
Two days in Paris with lovely Kate, doing, er, not a lot but loving every second.

I love trail running, I really do. Whenever it was that I first started and then carried on, I’m really happy that that happened. Since leaving Australia I haven’t done heaps of sport and last week in Switzerland was my first run in absolutely ages so I was slow off the blocks with this one, it took me until 2 o’clock to leave the house!
la location
I’m in Annecy, which is South East France, near the Swiss border. It’s absolutely stunning here, Lake Annecy is milky blue, the hills …

A week in the tiny and incredibly lovely village Nuglar in Switzerland.
Visiting family (it’s been too long!), hanging out, absorbing clean Swiss air and tidy Swiss vibes.
Throwing in some running, bike riding, swimming, yoga and a very soggy walk.
Being amaze-balled at the beauty of the countryside and the charm of the towns.

Three days with Lisa in Central Europe’s very best city (ask The Economist).

Walking around the impressive cathedrals, churches, opera houses & monuments and trying to work out why I was getting culture shock & finding it all so awe inspiring.

Surviving the heat thanks to the coffee shops, beisls and beautiful Viennese wine.

And, cruising past an awful lot because we were non stop talking, giggling, roaring and people watching.

Dad joined me for ten wicked days in Thailand. We stuck to the South, exploring the islands & bays, in fact Dad didn’t spend one night on the mainland!

We travelled light and along the way took creeky mopeds around town (all three of us on that, really…?), ultra-slick speedboats to the Full Moon party and hitch-hiked to the airport.

Although it was out-of-season we met a lot of brilliant people: locals who wanted to share their regional dishes; little’uns who wanted to share our wallets; backpackers who wanted to drink; honeymooners who wanted to chat; walkers who, er didn’t want to walk; hosts and guides who wanted to help, laugh & hang.