How to stay connected while travelling

*This post contains affiliate links  Staying connected while travelling around, whether that’s in the UK or further afield, has never been more important. Just because we’re away from home, it doesn’t mean we want to switch off entirely and we may need our mobiles on hand to keep in touch with those back home. Roaming with our mobiles has become easier over the years, with networks now forced to make their roaming policies clear and stick to certain rules. So, let’s take a look at the roaming rules while travelling in certain locations and what you need to be aware of before you set off. UK Travelling in the UK if you’re with a UK mobile network should be relatively straightforward. Whichever of the four nations you’re in, you’re fine to use your mobile as you would in your own garden. However, if you’re going to be spending a lot of time in remote areas, it’s worth checking whether your network has good reception around there. If not – and if your handset is unlocked as many are t......

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Ways to Support the Noah's Ark Conservation Project

This is a paid post to help raise awareness of Noah's Ark Conservation project  We all know the world has hit a crisis point, not just because of the pandemic but for a variety of reasons including climate change and plastic waste and it has without a doubt had a big impact on the environment and natural world. We need to do what we can to conserve wildlife and nature for future generations but the time has come for some real action that's where Noah's Ark comes in. Noah's Ark is planning to build a state-of-the-art animal and ecological conservation park in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, covering 100 square kilometres making it the largest and most ambitious conservation project in history, with building planning to start in 2021. The project will feature a national park, worlds biggest aquarium, geodomes replicating environments such as Antarctica and the Amazon rain forest. The main aims of the project are to protect the animal species especially thos......

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Top 3 Family Friendly Destinations for Winter Sun

Being a South African expat I find that even after nearly a decade living in the UK that the winters are still a struggle, as much as the magic of snow will never fade the idea of those short days and long nights and the biting wind that lingers just a little bit too long for me are always hard. I find my main coping method to this is seeking out a little winter sunshine as it's surprising what a week or two away in a different country, culture and climate really does wonders for the soul and goes a long way to breaking up those cold winter months. If you are a regular reader to my blog you will know we always travel as a family so that is always a factor when deciding and planning trips away. It doesn't necessarily mean we need everything tailor towards children but knowing where ever we decided to go that children are welcome is important to us wether it be a city, beach or culture break. I have put together our top 3 destinations if your looking for a does of sunshi......

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Celebrating Rugby & Win tickets

Being born in South Africa to a Welsh mother has meant that Rugby is certainly something in my culture and apart of my childhood - I have fond memories of South Africa winning the world cup in 1995 - the atmosphere was electric and to us South Africans it was much more than just a game it was unifier for a country who had a bit of a broken past. Since moving the the UK I have gone to watch South Africa play Wales twice, both in Cardiff and what a fantastic day out. They were both friendly matches and the atmosphere was incredible, welcoming and exciting and something I would love to take my kids too, especially my eldest who I know would really enjoy himself. If you feel that same as me then you will excited to hear that Currys and Toshiba is giving away a pair of tickets to the quarter finals in Twickenham on the 18th October which is really a once in a lifetme experience if you ask me - you can see more information here To enter our competition, all you need to do is blog ......

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Why I moved to the UK

A younger child free me My mother is Welsh and my father South African, I spent 19 amazing years in Cape Town, South Africa, the place that will be forever home yet I doubt I will ever live there again. I flew over to the UK at the tender age of 16 as I had been invited to train full-time at a well respected Judo Dojo in Edinburgh, I had some success on what was at the time my future plan but needed to return to South Africa when I was 19 when my father passed away suddenly. This gave me a lot of time to reflect, I had had the chance to live in two different countries and I realised that as much as I loved South Africa in terms of work and school the UK offered better opportunities at the time as well as my mother and brother living in the UK it seemed like the best choice. As I said the UK does have some great opportunities if you are willing to work and work hard at that. I was lucky enough to achieve my degree in the UK, something that would of been a lot harder in South Afri......

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Thank-you to an amazing Woman

With mothers day looming I have found myself reflecting on my own journey as a mother as well as that of being a daughter to an amazing woman and all the trials, tribulations and celebrations we have gone through over the past few years and how we have grown to be an even closer and stronger family unit. My mother has always been the emotional stronghold of the family, the one we could lean on and still do. She is also my constant source of inspiration especially when it comes to interiors and style, her motto of less is more and quality over quantity is something I always try to take on board, in fact she was actually the one who introduced me to Laura Ashely and Bodens many years back. The thing that always blows me away is her strength which was really pushed to the limit when my father passed away suddenly 10 years ago. I was coming to the end of my somewhat difficult teenage years and entering my twenties and feeling a little directionless, while my mother had com......

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20 Tips that Help Make your Holiday Travel Better

Looking out across Budapest The globalization of the world has resulted in a sort of myopia in terms of understanding and adapting to other cultures, especially when we are traveling. Mass media has given many of us the mistaken opinion that everyone is basically similar, which is far from true. As traveling becomes easier and more of us are fulfilling our desires to see the world, it is easy to unintentionally run afoul of local customs and traditions.  Mr A enjoying the warmer weather of the South of France Here are twenty examples. 1. If you are unsure of the culture and traditions of the country you are travelling it it's probably best to dress is subdued colours. 2. Use your right hand. While this can prove problematic for those that are left-handed, many Asian and Middle Eastern cultures it is considered rude to use your left hand when eating or for any other social function. 3. Don’t wear green and yellow in Brazil. Brazil is a fairly relaxed cou......

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Tasty South African Dishes

Me on my first day of school in Cape Town If you read the blog regularly you will probably know that I was born in South Africa to a Welsh mother (SA Father) and Mr A has now been born in Wales to a South Africa mother (Welsh Father) so we have an interesting mix in our house when it comes to childhood memories and the food we eat. I love anything Mediterranean as the South Africa diet at times can be very similar to the greek - we are huge fans and producers of Olives and Feta cheese as well as enjoying light salads, tapas and moussaka in the summer sun.  John on the other hand is a fan of slightly heavier British style food which simply was not that common in South Africa - I mean who would want to eat a Sunday roast when its 30 degrees outside. I used to live on the slopes of the beautiful table mountain So when I was recently set a Cricket World Cup foodie challenge by Betfair to put together a yummy dish inspired by one of the 14 countries taking part and I knew ......

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Fathers Day Dreams

I loved my childhood spent growing up in South Africa and I love that I came from multi-national family with my father being South African with German descent and a Welsh Mother, it always meant that there was something interesting going on in the house and I always thought the word "cwtch" was normal (although my friends had no idea what I was talking about). My father really implored that with hard work anything was possible and having funded himself all the way through three University Qualifications and his friends would always say "every rand was a prisoner" as he lived on air as a student while some of his friends were already out making money, he did this to insure he had a great future. It was all worth while and I will always be in awe of him, he constantly inspired me and impressed me with his love for life, travel and viewing the world with an open mind. Unfortunately he is no longer with us but I can still hear his laugh and see him listening to ......

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