Personal

Have You Got Text Neck? Symptoms and Solutions

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phone bad for health text neck

Two years. That’s how long I’ve been in pain. I’m not talking about emotional or anxiety driven, soul-searching pain, which you might assume given the title of this article and the rising evidence of the impact of our phones on our mental health. Nope. I’m talking about actual, physical pain. Symptoms of Text Neck Pain in my back. Pain in my neck. Pain in my hand, my elbow, my arm. Pain enough to take pain medication almost every day for those two years. “I think I injured it doing some DIY,” I told the first physiotherapist I met a couple … Read more

11 Travel Gifts for Yourself

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10 Travel Gifts for Yourself

With the gift giving season right around the corner, why not add a little gift for yourself to your shopping list? Perhaps you’re still receiving gifts from your oh-so-brief but still not forgotten Bieber phase? Perhaps you have a generous benefactor who’s landed a pot of Christmas cash in your lap. Or perhaps you just think – I’m amazing, I’ve worked my bottom off this year and I deserve a little something from me to me. Here are 10 travel themed gifts for yourself. 1. A plane ticket What greater travel gift can there be than the gift of actual … Read more

Tonle Sap in Cambodia – The Trip that Changed my Life

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No matter which way I slice it, the beginning of 2010 was a monumentally shit time for me. My personal life had fallen apart and I couldn’t stop crying. My sleeping pattern was in tatters and in the darkest parts of the night I lay in my bed, straining my eyes against the dim bedside light, flipping through travel brochures. I didn’t know how to fix my life (God knows I’d tried) but I found a tremendous dose of comfort in an alternative solution: Run. As far and as fast as I could. I’d never travelled alone before. Not really. … Read more

15 Surprises From My ACL Repair Surgery – What They Don’t Tell You

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This post is part of a series. You may want to start here. If your want the quick links, here’s the full series: My Real Life Guide To ACL Surgery and Recovery Injuring my ACL – My Story ACL Repair – Timeline of My Recovery (With Pictures) ACL Recovery – 15 Things I Would Have Done Differently Gadgets That Helped My ACL Recovery I recently had ACL surgery. Like most people about to go under the knife, I did a bit of research before my operation and I found all the usual stuff – anatomical diagrams of the inside of a knee, … Read more

ACL Repair – Timeline of My Recovery (With Pictures)

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acl-repair-surgery-in-hospital

This post is part of a series. You may want to start here. If your want the quick links, here’s the full series: My Real Life Guide To ACL Surgery and Recovery Injuring my ACL – My Story 15 Surprises From My ACL Repair Surgery – What They Don’t Tell You ACL Recovery – 15 Things I Would Have Done Differently Gadgets That Helped My ACL Recovery In 2016 I had ACL surgery. It seemed like a no-brainer since I’m a travel writer and was (relatively) young when I ruptured my ACL, MCL and meniscus in one fell swoop – I … Read more

50 Biggest Culture Shock Experiences

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Culture shock is defined as the feeling of disorientation experienced by someone when they are suddenly subjected to an unfamiliar culture, way of life, or set of attitudes. For me, culture shock is that ‘oh, wow’ moment when you lock eyes on something that you’ve never seen before and you know that it will stay with you forever, no matter how far and and how long you travel. Culture shock isn’t a judgement (before people start jumping up and down and flinging all sorts of accusations after they read the list below), it’s an observation about how different things are compared to what … Read more

Reverse Culture Shock – Coming home after being a digital nomad

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If you follow this blog, you’ll know that I left the UK in 2010 and have been roaming the globe, living the digital nomad lifestyle ever since. You’ll also know that a ridiculous knee injury in the British Virgin Islands has put me on less glamorous British National Health Service waiting list for ACL reconstruction. It involves hamstrings and scalpels and several months of recovery. I’ll be honest, while the digital nomad lifestyle has its obvious advantages, it’s not the easiest lifestyle to maintain and I’ve thought many times about quitting that life to return to the other life I’d … Read more

So, that was my 30s…

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Turning 40 Life

On the eve of my 30th birthday, I wasn’t where I was supposed to be. I should have been at home, putting together the final plans for my birthday celebration. Instead, I was hundreds of miles away dreading a funeral. It turned out to be a sign of things to come: my 30’s would be defined as the decade where nothing went to plan. In my 30s…. I got engaged. I got married. Twice. Both times to the same man. Once in a Chateau in France. Once in a chapel in Las Vegas, officiated by Darth Vader (life advice: everyone … Read more

When Life Screams: Stop Travelling

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The moment my cruciate ligament ruptured in my knee has left a visceral imprint in my mind. It wasn’t so much the popping sound, although I can conjure up the exact noise at a moment’s notice. Nor was it the pain, which wasn’t as bad as you might imagine because, apparently, the more severe the knee injury, the less pain you feel. It was the feeling of free movement I remember the most – the sensation of my knee no longer being held in place the way it had been before, and the deep queasy urge to vomit that came with … Read more

Is Uber Safe to Use: Meet the Faces of Uber

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I’m an Uber user. I’m also a 5ft tall woman who travels around the world solo. And I regularly get asked is Uber safe to use. Worse, I often get told that Uber isn’t safe. Usually by people who’ve never taken an Uber. So, what’s the deal? Is Uber safe to use or not? If Uber’s done one thing, it’s caused controversy. From licensed taxi companies who are spitting foam at the idea of cut price competition to the naysayers who are convinced that every other Uber passenger is going to be subject to rape, robbery or both, Uber seems to … Read more