All I wanted was to love youand be loved by you.It felt so simple. You felt like my other half,a mirror to the parts of meI had long forgotten.I wanted to holdYour beautiful handsfor the rest of my life. To feel your structuremeet my warmth,your functioncradle my colouras we built homes,a family,a rhythm. I wanted…
3 Angels of Pelion
Recently, my mum and I spent 12 days hiking in Pelion, Greece. A region, before this hike that I had no idea existed. My mum had put so much time into the planning, the researching and she did such an incredible job. Our route was incredible. I will share more about the hike itself, as…
Get her to the Greek.
I’d been living in Carrara, Italy, for a year and a half. 42% of the population is over 55, and only 7.82% of the residents are foreigners — mostly Romanian, Albanian, African, and a small handful of Brits. So, as you can imagine, meeting English-speaking suitors my age was… a challenge. I was diligently working…
How a Forgotten Email Led to Writing Again
I almost lost my blog. For a few days, I was locked out and couldn’t get back in. I felt really sad, because I first started this blog in 2011. The lesson, I have had to tighten up my digital security because up until now, I have been pretty shocking at remembering passwords and emails…
Chief Stew Diaries: and then, there’s Madam.
Breakfast on board a superyacht is a big deal. It is the meal that sets the whole tone for the day, it’s our chance to gauge the mood of the guests and try to massage them back into high spirits if that is not the case. Breakfast is an insanely busy time on board. Let’s…
The Pulse of Paris
“The chief danger about Paris is that it is such a strong stimulant.” —T.S. Eliot If Paris did anything, it injected me with a passion for city life again. I left feeling a thousand different feelings and with the intention to come back 1000 times more. I had been hesitant to come to Paris. My…
Wrapping up my 2022
My word for 2022 has been “grounded”, the tagline, “root to rise”. And while, it has been a wildly different grounding to what I had imagined it would be at the end of 2021, Grounded, it certainly has been. I have done 3 different multi-day hikes (2 with my beautiful Mum in Europe), I have…
Chief Stew diaries: The morning routine
Imagine waking up on a bunk bed every day for 4 months straight, with a teeny circular window (porthole) next to your head, a curtain sealing you into your bunk, and a sleeping cabin mate 1.2 meters underneath you. As a recovering people pleaser, I have learned the art of how to slide out of…
Impossible is nothing.
I have a tendency to exaggerate. It’s in my blood – my grandfather always said, “Never let truth get in the way of a good story.” But today, I have promised myself I will not exaggerate any of the occurrences below 🙂 Are you ready? You know that moment when you are hanging by your…
cowboys and italians.
My beautiful friend, Lizanne, came to visit me in Italy for a long weekend. When she arrived, my very well-travelled companion admitted she had NEVER been to Italy. I was flabbergasted and immediately our Prosecco catch-up turned into a planning session on how best to utilise her 4 days in Tuscany to maximize her experience….
my grateful plate 