As thousands of Olivia’s contemporaries settle into damp, cold boarding houses all over the UK, she has moved into what is locally known as the ‘Dubai Palace’ for her first term as a boarder at Repton School Dubai. The accommodation is a vast villa, wi …

On Monday school starts for all three children. The little two are going to go to a sweet little primary school here in Abu Dhabi called The Pearl, and Olivia, who starts ‘big’ school is off to Repton in Dubai. Repton is an English school and Olivia wi …

Today I wore leopard-print skinny jeans (Top Shop, to die for), leopard-print shoes and scarf. And a white shirt. “You still have the courage to wear leopard print?” asked a male colleague of a similar age to me. “He thinks I’m too old to wear leopard- …

Tomorrow we head back to Abu Dhabi. We have had the most wonderful time and have decided that one of the most civilized things in the world is the European rail network. We have travelled from Zurich to Arosa to Paris to London to Wales back to London …

We have been home for a week and are getting ready to leave again. I am not quite sure what to think. Part of me wants to sort out the whole house, unpack all the boxes and just never ever leave again and yet part of me thinks ‘thank God we don’t live …

It was Shakespeare who said that no traveller returns, meaning that when you go away you come back a different person. We are now well into our holiday and I have learned a few things about myself and life in general. I have learned that I want to live …

I suppose if you have to be awake at 3am there are worse places to be. I am sitting on a rooftop terrace in Paris with an (albeit limited) view of the Eiffel Tower. Our hotel room is a tiny attic room at the rather oddly named Hotel Wo on the rue de St …

Tonight we head off to Europe. All being well this time tomorrow we will be in the Swiss Alps at the Tschuggen Hotel where we spend four nights (working hard on a travel piece) followed by Paris, London, Abersoch (it’s in Wales), then home to Sainte Ce …

I am having a nice time hanging out with Leo, while the girls are away in Italy visiting Roman ruins and avoiding my aunt. Hanging out with Leo means not only learning to love the Beautiful Game. It means learning to live, breathe, dream, think and tal …

Much has happened. The girls went off to Italy to stay with my mother. Then they went to Croatia with my aunt. What happened between then and their week-early return yesterday is a little hazy. But according to my aunt they refused to speak to anyone a …