LIFESTYLE
Who is not overjoyed to see that Spring - with its vibrant blankets of daffodils and crocus stretching towards the sun - is around the corner?
The seasonal transformation after months of drabness, biting cold and torrential rain is a symbolic period and the perfect time to revisit your bucket list.
The month of January sees many of us, including our Leave Work to Travel trio, fired up with the best intentions to become sylph like, toned Adonis’s and transform our lives overnight.
The reality is that we become disillusioned very quickly, often because we’re too impatient with the result that the diet is ditched, the gym membership dispensed with, and we feel despondent.
If that’s the case, now is the ideal time to dig out your bucket list and reignite your mojo because life’s short and we never know what’s round the corner.
I can’t think of a more appropriate period than now to act on the words of acclaimed author Henry James as we take our tentative first steps towards freedom.
The global pandemic and associated sacrifices have given us time to reflect if - and how - our dreams, goals and aspirations have changed.
The symbolical re-emergence may also take on a greater sense of urgency for those ‘of a certain age’.
It’s been widely reported that spending long periods in isolation could coincide with a rise in domestic violence and child abuse as well as depression, anxiety, drug and alcohol abuse.
Building up our mental health ‘reserves’, to help us through the months ahead, is therefore vital and one way to help ourselves - and others - is by embarking on a virtual Wellbeing Coach Training course.
As we race into summer and the prospect of sunshine-soaked days to explore near home or further afield in the UK, hitting the road in a motorhome conjures an evocative picture for many.
With staycations all the rage, our Leave Work to Travel motorhoming trio reflect on the lessons - of which there are many - they learnt to help those about to take the plunge.
After swapping a caravan for a motorhome in August 2019, selling a business and setting off on a rollercoaster retirement road trip, Steve shares tips and traps to avoid.
After a bumpy start in November 2019, when our Leave Work to Travel trio was robbed of our passports, money and credit cards we had two choices - give up or get going again.
Having been on the road for just 12 days when the disaster stopped us in our tracks, it would have been easy to go home - at that stage our house hadn’t been rented out.
Up for a challenge we opted to stick it out - never imagining the seismic changes Europe and the world were about to undergo within the next few months.
To say we encountered more than we bargained for - after waving Yorkshire goodbye on a bitter October night for a European motor home trip - is a wild understatement.
Fairly seasoned travellers by train, sea and air, aswell as many years of caravaning, motor homing was a new quest as we set sail for Calais in high spirits with an overexcited golden retriever.
Life’s greatest pleasures include consuming wine, evocatively described by Galileo, as ‘sunlight, held together by water’.
Leave Work to Travel’s eclectic motorhome adventures have taken us to Spain, which, unsurprisingly, is among the world's leading wine producers. In 2020 it ranked third on the list of wine-producing countries with a phenomenal output of four billion litres.
Our route took us through the La Rioja region which has 500 wineries including the famous Marqués de Riscal and its jaw-dropping design masterpiece.
Ibiza dazzles and enchants with its eclectic and diverse culture fusing the historic and the modern.
The stunning 'Isla Blanca’ (white island) is also a ‘foodie heaven’ for tempting palates with delectable dishes.
Leading sporting, leisure and tourism destination, La Manga Club got back into its swing on July 1 after the Covid-19 lockdown with meticulous socially distanced check in procedures.
Invited to review the Club in March, we were bowled over by the experience.