shuvonshuvoff motorhome adventures

  When I decided that I wanted to hit the road in my motorhome and travel around Great Britain nearly two years ago, the important thing for me was to send out a positive ageing message and to challenge ageist stereotypes. I am heartened that in the last two years, particularly throughout both lockdowns, I have seen a momentum growing of people advocating the proageing message. We all age from the day we are born. We are privileged to be able to age, I have lost family members far too early in their lives and that makes me even more determined to embrace life and live every day to its fullest. The pandemic stopped me in my tracks during the lockdowns, and I have to admit that at times it was very hard psychologically to know how to cope with the restrictions imposed on me. The main thing I said when I set off was "my plan is to have no plan. I intend to go with the flow and see where life takes me" The Pandemic gave me time to really reflect on things and to regroup and prior...

  I turned the key in my ignition and felt the butterflies in my stomach as I prepared to leave the field I had been on since lockdown started, at the start of November 2020. I had craved the company of other people but now the time had come for me to move on I was feeling an equal measure of excitement and anxiety. I headed off towards Lincolnshire. I had felt so much kindness from people throughout lockdown via zoom calls and phone calls. I now felt that I wanted to give back to some of those people. So I had volunteered to help at bigskyhideaway.com  which is being set up by the founders of  sayyesmore.com   I had booked onto a caravanclub.co.uk  CL site at Boston Aerodrome in Lincolnshire. As  I pulled up I was nervous because I had got out of the routine of arriving at new sites and setting up. Thankfully the guy that met me was very friendly and pointed me in the direction of an area of grass alongside the little runway. When I had finished setti...

  Last night I went to bed feeling very anxious because I knew that the following day I would be joined by other people in motorhomes on the site. Today the 12th of April 2021 sees an easing of lockdown and campsites can open up to the public but they must keep their facilities closed.  I came to this field on the edge of Blakeney, at the start of November, just before the lockdown started and I have been here alone for over five months.(98 days) At the start it was quite scary because the locals were unhappy that I was here in my motorhome. Things soon settled down though and they got used to me being here. Once they realised that I was not breaking any rules. I was travelling Great Britain in the motorhome and as a freelance journalist I was working from the motorhome, so I fit the Caravan and Motorhome Club criteria to enable me to stay on the CL site.  The owners of the site have just been so kind and I have felt protected and well looked after by them. They even let ...

 I had the pleasure of talking to Frit Tam, a Chinese adventurer, adventure filmmaker, photographer and a member of the LGTBQ community. FrIT told me about growing up in Britain and how despite having family heritage in Hong Kong, the family here is very Westernised. It was during university that Frit started to learn how to use a camera better, at the same time as studying Visual Effects and Animation, with a view to working in cinema. But that dream of working in cinema animation changed with the realisation that film making enabled Frit to be able to use cameras to develop a structure with a profound narrative to tell compelling stories. BRAVE ENOUGH, was Frit's first hour long film, that followed Jo Moseley @healthyhappy50 ,the Stand up Paddleboarder, who had an adventure paddleboarding along the Leeds Liverpool canal. They have had so many sellout screenings of the film, with question and answer sessions. The film beautifully captured the emotional rollercoaster of embarking ...

My interview with Miriam O'Gara Kilmurry was a roller coaster hearing all about her life, from being born in Ireland, Fleeing Tehran with her mother in the 70's, teaching in France and to returning to her singing roots. She said that it was a nun at her school that realised that she had a beautiful singing voice and she encouraged her mother to develop it. From then on she trained mainly in classical music. She knew that she needed to learn French and Italian to enhance her classical singing. With this in mind she moved to Paris where it took some adjusting to their way of life. She ended up teaching English as well as singing in a club called Kitty's. She moved to the Costa Del Sol where she was in lots of shows with many West End professionals. Eventually she returned to Ireland and got into the Bunratty Castle Entertainers. She said that she loved the time she sang with them.  She married an English man and moved over to England  at the age of 34,  where she did a BA w...

My sister got in touch with me to let me know that my age group was now eligible to have the vaccine. I was both excited and if I am honest a bit frightened. I had registered with a local doctors surgery a few days before so that I would get called for my vaccine. They told me that it would be a couple of weeks at the earliest that they would call me. So I logged onto the NHS website and after a few attempts to find somewhere local, I found a vaccination centre 18 miles away. Thankfully the owners of the land where I am staying had had their vaccinations and they knew that I was in my own bubble, having not been around anyone for nearly four months, so they kindly offered to take me to get my vaccination. When the day came, Tuesday 2nd March 2021, I woke up feeling really anxious, like I used to feel before exams and job interviews, butterflies in my stomach. On the drive there I realised that I was feeling quite overwhelmed about being out in a car heading to get the vaccine. I had no...

  I enjoyed my chat with Sky Bergman the American film maker who has produced a number of films including her award winning, 'Lives Well Lived' Documentary, which celebrated the secrets, wit and wisdom of age. For the film she interviewed 40 people with a collective age of 300 years. She told me that she grew up in South Florida and she had a great childhood, very family orientated with her grandparents, a good intergenerational mixture. She went to the university of South Florida in Tampa and studied business but discovered photography when she took a class for fun. She realised straight away that that was something that she wanted to pursue instead of business. Eventually she went to California to go to grad school. She said that she loved the West Coast so much she stayed there and has spent the last 26 years teaching photography. She worked as a photographer for many years doing many travel projects and book covers. The idea for her first film came about when her 96 year ol...