A lifestyle blog
Yay. Congratulations, you are moving house. It is all very exciting. You have found the house you want to buy and you have found a buyer for yours. All is good. Until somebody pulls out and the chain collapses. How often have we heard this? Time and time again a chain collapses and dream houses are lost. So I thought I would share with you my top tips
The news is dominated today by news of a conference in London where 70 nations are coming together to discuss #SupportSyrians. What needs to happen to not only stop the civil war in Syria but how we can all help the Syrians displaced and the host communities now breaking under the burden of looking after the migrants. Six hundred and ninety thousand Syrian refugees are currently in Jordan, the country
Dinner Restaurant Most nights one of our Sage Appliances helps me put vaguely edible food on the table. I like to think that Heston (who helps design the range) is in my kitchen, helping make cooking a bit more of an experience than it really is. Though he does always seem to leave me with the washing up. So when we were invited out for lunch by Tim and
On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light Swap the colitas for oranges and the shimmering light for a young chap with a tea tray and this could have been California. Except it wasn’t it was Jordan, and it was the road known as the desert highway. The
Last weekend it was about trying to get over being away for five days: the culture shock of processing the stories we heard; the lack of sleep; the two 6 hour flights in five days; the lack of fresh air as we were mostly inside etc etc. The weather was not really on our side but Mr B and I were determined to get out with our cameras. Our new
It was his eyes that got me. And his eyelashes. One of the most gorgeous little boys I have ever met. With a smile that lit up the room. And a cheekiness about him that I knew we wouldn’t see today but I wanted to know more about. Ahmed, on the right in the above picture, is 14 and a keen footballer. Back in Syria he used
Chicken Kabseh, or Kabsa, is a new recipe to me but one I wanted to try and make at home as soon as I got back from a recent trip to Jordan. One of the great things about travel is discovering different foods. I love mooching round supermarkets in whichever foreign city I am in to see what local delights they have, and what imports we might recognise. On my
I wasn’t sure what to expect during our day at the Azraq refugee camp, 80Km from the Syria border. I have so much I want to say, so much to process and share. I wanted to get this out though as we have just half an hour before dinner. The white shelters are iconic now. They are the picture you see when the media talks about the camp. There
. Desperate. That is how I would describe Da’ed and Manar’s lives now. The two sisters living in a basement flat with not only bars at the window but also boards up so they can’t see out. Presumably also so people cannot see in. Maybe it is the lack of natural light in this room that makes me feel their situation is desperate, I don’t know.
This is a post about friendship. I need to process the things we have seen today, and think about the people we have met before I fall asleep and of all the stories we have heard today the overwhelming thread to is all is friendship. Two different families hosted us today, in an area in the north of Jordan called Ajloun. It’s on the tourist route as Ajloun
In three classrooms of a school in Irdib, the third largest city in Jordan just 20 miles from the Syrian border, is a bustling student community. From the outside it looks like any other. A basketball court to the side, an area for playing football at the back. Nestled amongst houses and small businesses you might not think anything of this building. But what goes on
. Four years ago in the middle of night Aintifar woke to the sound of shelling. Louder than usual she soon realised that her house had been hit. The house she lived in with her husband, who worked in construction, and five of her six children, the eldest, Muayed away in Lebanon doing his National Service. Her children had been injured by shrapnel and the family soon
