Welcome to my world, I am very pleased you stopped by!

 

My name is Sharon, I am an avid writer who loves travelling.  I was born in London and moved to Essex at a young age.  I now live in Southend on Sea, Essex. I am a mum to four grown up children and grandmother to three - hoping for more - grandchildren. I currently work as a childminder and have done so for 26 years.

 

My passion for travel began many, many years ago when I saw an article on tv news, about an event in Istanbul. It looked so exotic, inviting and mysterious, it immediately ignited the curiosity in me and I made a promise to myself to visit every capital city in the world - Yes, I know Istanbul isn’t a capital city, however  it seemed like a reasonable and achievable goal to aspire to.  By my late teens I had visited Paris, Tunis and Brussels, and really believed I was on target to fulfil this ambition.  There were however two tiny flaws in my plan………. Lack of money being the first and then I got married and started a family, and travelling abroad was off the table.  We did however, manage to fit in many happy holidays to Norfolk, which is even now one of my all time favourite destinations in England.  

 

I hated the thought of there being a big wide world out there with so many things I had not seen - The Great Wall of China, The Pyramids, White sandy beaches with their crystal clear waters, The Giant Tortoises in Galapagos and not to mention the exotic wildlife and natural phenomenons around the world in far flung places.  Fast forward to the year 2024, I am  now in my 50’s, and I am happy to report that I have been able to reignite my passion and over the years, I have visited approximately 24 countries, not always the capital city but I have ticked off a few cities along the way.  

 

 

I can say that for the most part my holidays have always gone to plan and I have been lucky to have visited some wonderful destinations, such as Greek Islands, Italy, Maldives and USA, I still have a huge bucket list which I am hoping to embark on this year.  So far this year,  I have been to Santorini, Amsterdam and Romania,  Ecuador and Dublin.  I am also forward planning for next year.   I am lucky that I have a great travel partner, my boyfriend Darren, and we have travelled to many destinations together and we always have a memorable time.  I have also had the pleasure recently of being able to travel with my parents and my children to America as well as many happy “ English staycations” with my grandchildren.

 

All of this being said I am not very good at being away from home, and I often get home sick!  This is where Darren comes into his own and  keeps me busy, and helps me plan activities, days out and sightseeing, guaranteeing we have the most enjoyable holidays.  I have been with Darren for nine years and most of my travelling will be with him.  Darren works in a school so most of our holidays are during the school holiday time, rather than in term time.  Hopefully this will be punctuated with a few more family adventures along the way too.  

 

I have a few other hobbies too and I try to incorporate these into my travels.  I love football and music and usually manage to visit a local football stadium and often go to a concert or festival or see a band whilst travelling.  My boyfriend is a very good chef so food very much features in our travels. We always research the local cuisine before we travel and look for restaurant recommendations.  We research and watch tv chefs such as Rick Stein to get ideas of what food to explore locally and strive to find local cuisine and dishes at our locations.   I am also an amateur photographer and will try to include some holiday snaps to illustrate my travels too.   I will endeavour to bring all of these elements into my travel writing and hope you can enjoy travelling vicariously with me.