Feeling curious?
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you have some burning questions you want to know about me? I have answered some of my Frequently Asked Questions below! I’ll start off with the fact I’m an iced coffee addict, complete Potterhead, addicted to magic, a cat lover and I love anything to do with history.
SOME QUICK FACTS ABOUT ME
Personal FAQs
I get this question A LOT. People always think I’m from some exotic land. But I’m just a Brit.
My family is from Wales in the UK, but I was born in Bournemouth, England. So, I guess you could call me a half-Welshie! I now live in Wiltshire in the South West of England.
I think that travel styles change as people change and grow.
At first, I was a shoestring traveller who would stay in hostels and try to keep to a £5 budget.
But now I appreciate a good night’s sleep, so I have stretched my budget, and I’m not afraid to splurge!
I definitely like to travel slower and, as well as seeing the main touristy attractions (I mean, they are amazing and touristy for a reason!), I hunt down hidden gems and offbeat places. It’s definitely my soft spot.
I have eclectic taste in music. I like KoRn, Slipknot and heavy metal. Glam, thrash and Indie too. I love Adam Ant.
My favourite bands of all time are The Doors, The Stone Roses and Nirvana.
I also listen to a lot of ambient music when I write. I love soundtracks from games like The Witcher and Skyrim. Or, my favourite movies and fantasy TV shows.
Yes. Big time. Traditionally, I’m a PC gamer. But there are two games I’m obsessed with right now;
- Love and Deepspace (I’m a Sylus main)
- Where Winds Meet (I play solo)
My first love of games came from Monkey Island, and if you haven’t heard of it or played it, change that right now!
It’s the best pirate game ever made, and it was created by LucasArts (now owned by Disney). Guybrush Threepwood is my hero.
I’m also an OG Runescape player on classic mode sometimes, and I used to play Civilisation and Total War a lot (I was a weird kid, but I loved strategy games).
I love puzzle games and anything by Five-BN. Lost Lands, Darkness and Flame and Legendary Tales are my favourite series by them.
I also like Skyrim, Morrowind and Oblivion, although I threw those out the window when I downloaded The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
Holy S*t. Best game I have ever played especially the expansion packs and I would give my soul to play that game for the first time again. It’s the music, the quality, the vibes, characters. All of it.
Pretty sure I’m on over 300 hours plus of game time now. No regrets and I’d do it all over again.
If you’re interested in my ‘lesser evil’ choices, here they are;
- Yen or Triss: Yen (obviously, it’s Geralt’s true love..although… Shani…)
- Endings: I saved Ciri in Wild Hunt and both sisters in Blood and Wine. HEA forever.
- Olgierd or O’dimm: I picked the sick saddle for Roach maybe not the best choice but I’ve made my peace with it. Why would I want a sword that I would level out of easily in the next game? I’d rather Roach be black to match my armour, help me fight, have white devil eyes and let off smoke, duh! We’re a team, she deserves some good stuff too.
- Favourite city: Beauclair, hands down. If I could live in Corvo Bianco in real life I would! Toussaint is a dream. Although Novigrad is also a work of art too and I’ve never seen a game city like it.
- Favourite monsters: I love the trolls, they are so cute and silly and I never fight them under any circumstances. I hate Bruxas and Harpies the most.
- Favourite quest: Ladies of the Wood, No Place Like Home and Dead Man’s Party.
As a side note, after reading the books, I wish they made Eredin a bit hotter in the game. Book Eredin is smoking and they really did him dirty. Still waiting for those steamy Sparrowhawk and Swallow chapters….
Anyway I digress…although I love The Witcher games, I’m sure I’m going to be hooked on Hogwarts Legacy when it comes out next year!
That time, my friend and I stayed in a hut on Koh Rong, and someone broke in while we were sleeping….they climbed in from the rooftop!
Not fun. at all. This resulted in lots of screaming and the police had to get involved. Never again.
Cheeky, but I’ll let you off. She’s old, I was born in 1989!
There are lots of books that I read often. I’m a HUGE Romantasy lover (Romance + Fantasy), it’s all I read. I have so many book boyfriends.
See what I’m reading right now on my Goodreads account.
At the moment, I am well and truly obsessed with ACOTAR, and my favourite is A Court of Silver Flames. I love Nessian.
Throne of Glass (Elorcan is my ride or Die) and the Crescent City series by Sarah J. Maas!
Also, the From Blood and Ash series by Jennifer L. Armentrout…Casteel Da Neer is just…*chefs kiss*, IYKYK.
The Plated Prisoner Series (Commander R.I.P), Unseelie Prince, Ice Planet Barbarians, Broken Bonds and The Bridge Kingdom are all amazing too.
I love delving into the Fae world of Solaria with Zodiac Academy (I’d let Darius Acrux crack my spine in half), Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac and Darkmore Penitentiary. All are incredible escapism.
I also loved Serpent and the Wings of Night in the Crowns of Nyaxia series and Beneath Black Sails and Kiss of Iron by Clare Sager.
The Ashes of Thezzmar series is *everything*, Wilder Hawthorne is a dream come true.
Also, Fourth Wing is another one of my favourites because *dragons*.
I have the biggest TBR, but dark romance on Kindle Unlimited always keeps me distracted.
Are you an ACOTAR fan? I recently visited a real-life Velaris in Zermatt Switzerland!
Tough one for movies, as I have so many favourites. I’d say Harry Potter is one of my favourites of all time, especially Half-Blood Prince. It used to be Prisoner of Azkaban.
But, I also love Pirates of the Caribbean, Twilight (big Twi-hard over here), Hunger Games, LOTR, Pulp Fiction, Rambo, Die Hard and many others.
For TV shows, at the moment I’m obsessing over The Witcher – Geralt is…ridiculously hot.
I also love Merlin, The Last Kingdom, Outlander, Black Sails (SO underrated), Vikings, Vikings of Valhalla, Game of Thrones, Bridgerton and Stranger Things.
Yep! Unfortunately, I was blessed with the family gene of early greys. So, It’s a necessary evil haha.
Again, so many! Probably Skydiving in New Zealand and the A J Hackett Nevis Bungee. Visiting an absinthe treehouse in Koh Ta Kiev in Cambodia.
Also, travelling to Mon and meeting Headhunters in Nagaland. Or, that time I got stuck on a mountain pass in the snow on the way to Tawang.
For me, there are SO many places that I have travelled to that don’t live up to the hype. Those are…
- Paris – It’s not that romantic and I don’t like the attitude towards homelessness there.
- Bali – Yes, it’s completely magical but it’s becoming overrun with tourists.
- Australia – I loved the weather but it’s just like the UK with more beaches. I also don’t like the attitude towards the Indigenous population.
Blogging FAQs
YES, for the last 4 years or so I’ve made my travel site my full-time job.
This means, yes, I do make money from my site! I couldn’t do it without you guys so THANK YOU.
No, I’m not thinking about getting a ‘real job’. My blog means I pull in way over a 35-hour work week but, I love it.
If you want to know more about how I make money, you can see this post here.
I chose the name when I was living in India! Living and travelling around the country is really what inspired me to start my blog. I guess it gave me a ‘third eye’ to see how my future would lay out. It hasn’t failed me so far!
Also, it doesn’t limit what I can write about and no one else had that name at the time.
I use the Adobe Lightroom Classic CC for Desktop. I don’t know why, but I’ve never got on with the newer version or mobile app.
I use my own set of presets to edit them so they have a similar feel.
These days, I use an Atumtek 65″ Phone Tripod (almost as tall as a 6 ft boyfriend, but he is metal and doesn’t complain about how many photos I take, hehe).
I slot my phone in and use an app called Lens Buddy, which acts as a self-timer and takes photos continuously.
I used to use a Bluetooth remote, but I kept having issues with it. So, now I prefer to let the app roll continuously to get photos of me. It’s SO much easier.
I also used to use my Olympus camera, set it up on a Manfrotto tripod and then use my phone as a remote shutter via Bluetooth. Olympus had an app I could download, like most big camera companies.
It feels a bit awkward at first, but then you get used to that awkward stage of taking photos in public, haha. If you want to see more tips, click here.
These days, my blog is predominantly a love letter to magical, fairytale, bookish and historical locations around the globe.
However, I always call my blog a little bit like a cabinet of curiosities!
I blog about travel destinations, tips, hidden gems, offbeat places, literary travel, and even historical pieces.
So, I blog about a lot of stuff. See my start here page if you want to know more.
For my videos and photos, I mainly use my iPhone 15 Pro Max! The photo quality is so good now.
But, I also use the Olympus OMD EM-10 Mark iii (bit of a mouthful) which looks almost vintage and I love it! I tried getting on with a heavy canon but it just wasn’t me.
I use an app called InShot for ALL of my videos. I edit with it for Youtube, Pinterest Video Pins, Instagram Reels, TikToks etc.
It’s honestly the best app for video editing, so simple and fast. It has lots of features like filters, effects and even royalty-free music. I pay around £18 a year for all the pro features and have never looked back.
I know a lot of people use Adobe Pro but it’s way too complicated for me haha. With my blog, I like simplicity and speed so InShot is a dream.
There are many things I would recommend if you are thinking about implementing SEO on your blog!
Learn how to start a blog here.
I would make sure that you download either RankMath or Yoast SEO on your WordPress so that you can see where you need to improve.
For keyword research you can use Keysearch (paid), also there is Keywords Everywhere (cheap but paid) or Moz and Neil Patel also have free keyword tools.
Also, I would 100% recommend the free resources from Make Traffic Happen. They have helped my blog no end. As well as their resources, they have AMAZING e-books and courses.
I’ve bought all three of their e-books so far, and all of them are easy to read and have made a massive improvement.
You should also make sure you’re on Pinterest, this is a game-changer. It can explode your blog traffic instantly if you have the right picture/pin!
See my lessons learned from a year of blogging here, or how to run a blog when you work full time here.
India FAQs
I lived in Gurgaon which is a city near Delhi and the NCR. Sector 54 if you want to get specific!
I had an apartment at Park Place which was a gorgeous complex set up for (mostly) for expats. It had a private pool, a park with a running track, a supermarket and even a nail salon. I didn’t have to leave if I didn’t want to.
I also had a personal driver (oo err) and had an absolute blast! Gurgaon wasn’t my favourite place in India.
It’s actually known as the expat/bar district and it was FULL of shopping malls. But, I definitely made the most of it with friends. We’d often escape to Delhi for sight seeing!
I lived in India for around a year. Then, I decided to leave on a sabbatical from my corporate job and travel around the country for six months!
Again, I went on a four month trip recently. So, I’ve spent almost two years travelling the country now. Can you tell it’s my favourite place?
Over the last two years of travelling around India, I’ve visited 22 of 29 states in India. Which is quite a lot considering India is MASSIVE!
I’ve visited all of the North Eastern states, the North to the likes of Ladakh, South India, even East and West coasts. But, not very many places inland, It’s the middle bit that I want to see next.
My goal is to travel to all the Indian states one day and write about my experiences on my blog.
Indian curries are so much different to the curries we have in UK. But, I’d definitely kill for a Murg Makhani (or butter chicken) right now or Aloo Gobi with a garlic nan on the side! Although the gee just makes my bum grow.
My favourite deserts are Gulab Jamun (so sweet it makes your teeth rot) and Jalebi! Sweet greasy batter haha.
Also CHAI is life!
Something I have never liked in India though is paneer. Never got on with it. But, everyone loves it. Guess it’s just me.
Have you ever thought of doing group tours?
Definitely something I am considering soon so watch this space! Or, get in touch if you need any trip planning advice.
I have a whole range of India resources and posts here.
I won’t disclose the name of the company but I worked as a Project Analyst and Trainer for a large Building Society in the UK!
We were hired in India for cultural awareness training and support for new financial systems.
I would travel across India and I provided training in many big name IT companies located in Chandigarh, Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune and more.
In a word. Crazy! But, I feel you really get to know the country well when you live and breathe it. It’s amazing how quick you adapt to traffic and the honking of horns.
Delhi is always a nightmare with traffic and chaos. But, that why I really appreciated having a driver. It gave me quite a lot of security, especially at night.
Eating out is incredibly cheap. Wine, however, is not! A large glass of wine would cost around the price of a bottle back home due to Alcohol tax.
But, despite all the differences, it was one of the best times of my life!
Definitely all of Rajasthan. It’s just the colours, mountains, temples, the people, culture and the food is amazing too!
But, I am also in love with the North East of India. I recently travelled to every state there and can’t wait to share my adventures.
At the moment, I don’t have any immediate plans to return to India but I never say never!