In Brief…

A northerner with a love of travel, blue skies, photography, flowers and food.

You’ll find me: wandering with a podcast on (PCD!), taking photos, forcing myself to run, cooking something new or checking the United score.

Study: Liverpool John Moores University, BA Media & Cultural Studies (Hons); CELTA (and a University of Lincoln Staff Award, does this count?).

Previously: Post university, three years in Asia (travelling and teaching in Taiwan); a year in South America (travelling from top to bottom); four years in Lincoln working at the University (in the Advice Service) and on the weekend exploring (and eating) as much of the UK and Europe as possible. After that, four years in Kuala Lumpur working at the British School of KL, eating endless rotai canai and wandering as often as possible despite the lack of pavements.

Have lived: Manchester, Liverpool, Taiwan, Vietnam and Malaysia.

Have travelled: Some of Europe, South Asia, South-East Asia, South America and North America (desperate to get to Africa) and some of Australia.

Now: Taking a breather following the death of my fun, happy dad Tony to pancreatic cancer; a hideously aggressive disease that took away his quality of life almost immediately.

Sadly, dad lived less than a year from official diagnosis (pancreatic cancer is a common quick killer, survival from pancreatic cancer has barely changed in 50 years). We’ve raised money (and will continue to do so) for Pancreatic Cancer UK. If you want to donate to help research and raise awareness of the UK’s 4th biggest cancer killer you can do so here: www.pancreaticcancer.org.uk.

Wander With Coffee was first brewed (get it? So sorry) in early 2011 and as I’m a bit of a hoarder, even with words, there’s some pretty old content on here that I haven’t removed, so bare that in mind if you scroll through the back catalogue! My more recent, sporadic rambles are definitely influenced by grief because that’s my life now, living through the constant ups and downs of its waves. For me, sharing and writing definitely helps and I’ve taken a huge amount of support from different blogs, Instagram accounts and podcasts which discuss grief and death, so I think it would be remiss of me not to give back and share too. There’s a few more Crying In My Coffee currently lying in my drafts…