After 7.5 years together and 15 months of planning, Gerard and I are now married! The day itself was amaaaazing; I'd been a bit nervous beforehand because I felt like there was a lot of pressure (both social and self-inflicted) for it to be the most special day of my life but I needn't have worried because it genuinely was the best day ever. I had thought a lot about what the day would be like in the weeks running up to it but weirdly one thing I hadn't conside...

Gerard had an interesting question the other day - what question have people asked you most when you've told them about the sabbatical? Top of the list for me is sadly not a particularly philosophical one but definitely relevant and worth a post: "so where are you going?" There's a little map on the homepage where I've added the stops which are already firm (flights are booked / boat is moored...) and I'll be updating it as we go along. Hopefully this will also ...

So I say it all began with a proposal. Apart from the nice romantic bit that this is when Gerard and I decided we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together (ahhh), this was also the point where I realised I'm a proper grown up. I have a hunch this revelation triggered an (initially subconscious) thought process that the time to do wildly irresponsible and spontaneous things was fast running out. The next big step was one evening in October 2012 when we went...