JustPickOneUK

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to sleep on a train? No I don't mean passing out in a carriage surrounded by other passengers when having a panic when you woke up with a dribble of drool coming out of your mouth as you try very quickly to discover if you are still in time for your stop or if you have to get off at the next available one and do a double back ride of shame..... I mean sleep in a small room all to yourself like in the Agatha Christie novel Murder on the Orient Express. Well I have.......minus the murdering.  I thought about it enough to make it my number 33 on my 40Before40 list. I was thinking about doing the London to Edinburgh journey because London is easy to get to from the South Coast of England where I live and I can fly back to a close enough airport to get home again, so it sounded like a win win.  But considering the cost of doing all of that, London and Edinburgh didn't quite seem exotic enough. So when the chance came to have some time to...

I will say from the off that this post is a series of first world problems and I am very well aware that I am privileged to have these as small issues, but they felt bigger at the time and this is my blog about my feelings so with that out of the way here we go.  I love travelling and have been trying to build my own YouTube channel based around it. www.youtube.com/@justpickoneuk if you weren't aware. Travelling with my family is wonderful, I love sharing the world especially with my son, we have been on a number of holidays and days out now and he loves travelling too. But being able to travel alone is a wonderful privilege.   My most recent adventure was for 10 days and I was able to go on a 2 night cruise from Southampton to Hamburg, then a sleeper train to Stockholm, then after two flights to the mid west of the USA where I was sight seeing and chasing tornados. It was an incredible adventure and such an amazing experience.  Travelling solo allows me to stop and...

 In the immortal words of Bilbo Baggins "I am going on an adventure!" I love travel and am actively making a YouTube channel based around the subject. But this time, my #40Before40 challenge has forced my hand a little bit in this one. I am trying to achieve a number of items off the list in one big adventure and this is certainly a mixed bag! For this trip I am going to be going on many different forms of transport. Firstly in a car to Southampton Cruise Port as I am going to be boarding Cunard's Queen Anne cruise ship and taking a 2 night trip over to Hamburg. I haven't been to Germany in many years and I am excited to board a new ship. My previous experiences cruising have not been as formal as this and so I am looking forward to the comparison.  I have paid £230 for the 2 nights in an inside cabin (Grade IC), not the cheapest grade on the ship but it was the cheapest option at the time I booked the cruise. I will not know my cabin number until nearer the time but ...

Well that was a lovely day. Well......morning. I got off the ship at around 10am in the end. I had no shuttle bus to take me into town but it isn't too far so one isn't needed unless you are less mobile or want to save your legs for wandering around. I had seen a horse and cart pulling out of a place close to the port heading off for a days worth of tourist entertainment. I thought nothing much of it as I walked past the dowdy looking buildings and a car park full of camper vans. Along the crunchy gravel path I went and came to a small bridge over which lies Cherbourg town. As soon as I got there I found the horses again, 3 large and beautiful animals, attached to two metal carts with 5 or so bench style seats. There was a sign next to them saying £5 for a 30 minute ride. That isn't bad at all! One of the times when being a solo came in handy. So I waited the 15 or so minutes when enough people boarded, paid my fare, was given a ticket and off we clopped around the town ce...

 Well I have done it. I took the leap, I've committed 5 days of my time to...... MSC Cruises. I would have never thought I would do this but, I am going solo on a 4 night cruise from Southampton to Cherbourg and Zeebrugge. My husband sent me a (sort of) joke about a longer cruise to the USA but that lead me down a rabbit hole to the Seascanner Website. Seascanner is the totally online arm of Cruise.co.uk which is a reputable travel agent here in the UK.  On a chance, I decided to have a look and see if there were any cruises going in the next couple of months for seven nights or less and for a cheap deal. I found one I'm going on the MSC Virtuosa leaving from Southampton on the 16th October yes that's less than two weeks from now.  I've booked an inside cabin on a guarantee basis this means that I am guaranteed at least an inside cabin grade but I could be upgraded in the future to an outside or balcony cabin. It's not likely to happen but nice to dream.  The total ...

 If you're in a situation where it feels like everything is failing, don't worry, it isn't. The fact is things just aren't going your way with that thing. I'm currently sat in my tent at 10:45pm talking into my phone so I don't have to type in the dark. I've forgotten to pack a bunch of things that you usually need for camping for example; a head torch, because it gets dark especially in the New Forest and I have to make it across the lumpy bumpy ground to get to the toilet. It is so much easier when you can see where you're going.  When I was pitching my tent this afternoon I needed to move one of the pegs because it wasn't quite in the right place. No big deal. It happens. Just pull it out and try again. But nope. The tree root I had unwittingly smashed my giant peg into had other ideas. It was going to hold on to my peg for dear life to the point where I had to wrestle with it for an hour..... Yes one whole hour of digging into the ground with ano...

I set up Just Pick One to try and do something different, to express myself and be free if the usual daily constraints. Following on from this, I decided I needed some time alone. I have never lived alone in my life and I wanted a taste of it. So I bought myself a smaller tent to take with me and set up a solo camp.  I took myself to The New Forest. Camping in the new forest is easy as there are lots of campsites and places to visit. I decided to use campinginthenewforest.co.uk again as I was happy with their sites before. I chose Roundhill Campsite for this trip. Partially because it was last minute and they had availability and it felt like a get away.  I bought a CfLity tent from Amazon. Nope I've never heard of that brand either. It is a 3 man tent (and as with all tents if you want room decide how many people will use it and then add 2 and you will be comfortable), and it goes up like an upside-down umbrella. And the best part, it only took 20 minutes, from unpacking it f...

 I have just returned from visiting London with my sister for a couple of days. Usually we would meet up at about the same time and stay together for the most of any visit but this time I had a lot of time to myself and I admit....I loved it.  When you are with someone else there is a sense that you need to keep in with them and some of the travel has to be what they want to do. "Shall we eat here?", "No thanks I'm not keen on burgers". (I'm fairly sure I would drop anyone who thought that but it was an example). "Let's go down here it looks interesting!", "No, my feet hurt and I don't want to walk any more" When you are alone, it's all about what you want. , "Ooh what's down there, let's find out." I'm hungry, I'll eat. I'm tired, I'll pause. Not what someone else wants, not where someone else wants to go or eat. I get to choose everything for myself. I walked my legs off roaming around from ...