Snowy helsinki

17 reasons to love Helsinki

Sometimes places inspire a picture painted with words. Helsinki in its winter dress did plenty to provoke poetry, but now is time for some more practical prose. Our reasons to love Helsinki First, this image of how it made us feel: An unlikely Tango The Finns love to Tango, so much so that they have … Read more

Steve and Victoria at SXSW

A big year for Steve

Planetary Collective

Tomorrow is Steve’s birthday. 

Because I write this blog, a lot of what is covered centres on my story. But while I write and subject myself to guinea pig trials, Steve is consistently working away on his film business. It’s impressive in itself that he’s been able to do this on the road, but even more so when you look at what he and the other members of Planetary Collective have managed to achieve. It blows my mind.

So, in honour of the man who I think is the best of this universe’s people, I’d like to shout a little about some of what he’s achieved this past year gone by. 

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Helsinki from above

A Portrait of Helsinki in Winter

Steve’s beard is made of ice and the snow is dancing to the shape of the wind. We smile, enchanted by the magic of winter. We’re arrived to the first snowfall of the season, the Finns delighting in relief from the darkness. It was a black Christmas in Helsinki, a rare and unwelcome occurrence. Winter … Read more

Is this the best school in the world? Green School Bali

One of the reasons we were drawn to Bali was a school. We’re not planning on having kids anytime soon nor do we even know if that’s a path we’ll go down, but we realised when we were in San Pancho that when it comes to choosing a place to live, good education options might … Read more

Paris desserts

A surprise weekend in Paris

Eleven years ago, I saw a boy dressed in a red hat, a red hoodie and a pair of baggy blue jeans. Looking at him that day, intuition and a skip of the heart told me that there was a story to be written between us. It took some time to get going – we were … Read more

Victoria Watts eating cake

Time to say f*ck it

I’m writing this with some homemade cookies and a coffee complete with milk. Dairy, wheat, caffeine, sugar, it’s all there and it’s glorious. I’ve been in rebellion mode for a month now. Two months of austerity in Ubud came to a crashing close at the Writers and Readers Festival where the arrival of the literary elite pushed away my … Read more

Cocktail on Balangan beach

A weekend by the beach in Bali

As we approached our last weekend in Bali, we realised we’d only managed to visit the beach once in our entire five months there. Both of us had been so busy on our various projects that we’d had little time off, and Ubud kept us more than entertained for the leisure time we did have. … Read more

Applied kinesiology and allergy testing

DKITYTI: Applied kinesiology and allergy testing

This post is part of my “Don’t knock it til you’ve tried it” series. My trip to the applied kinesiologist inspired a rage inside that surprised me. I felt furious, and I couldn’t say for sure why. Was it because he gave me a diagnosis I didn’t want to hear? Or was it because I … Read more

Laura Morgan, author of Stars Apart

Laura Morgan: Live the life you want to, not the life you think you should

Compass

At the top of this page under the title, we have the words “Live the life you want to, not the life you think you should”. It’s a sentiment we try to embody, and one that seems to resonate with lots of people. When some fellow and favourite writers started asking if we accepted guest posts, we initially weren’t sure how to approach it. We wanted to feature their writing, but how best to do it? We found our answer in the strapline. So here begins the first of our guest post series where talented writers respond to our mantra: “Live the life you want to, not the life you think you should”. We hope you enjoy it.

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