Grazing and long forgotten resolutions

New Years resolutions are hard to keep and coming towards the end of January many of us are already lamenting broken resolutions for yet another year. But at least when it comes to eating more healthily I've found a new company, Graze, that makes it easier to snack on healthy food than it is to snack on chocolate and crisps and all the usual.

We've all heard that grazing is healthier than having 3 square meals a day. And we all know that 4 o'clock feeling where your energy levels have hit rock bottom and you just have to have something to nibble on. But finding healthy snacks, and choosing them over the more readily available snack food, is not always easy.

Problem solved! Graze deliver a box of fresh healthy foods to nibble on to your door (or desk) whenever you want it. Their selection is brilliant, loads of tasty nuts, dried and fresh fruits, seeds, olives and really interesting mixes of all of the above. Plus you can tell them what you like and don't like so you're always bound to love the snacks they send.

And I love the packaging it's just gorgeous. The snacks arrive in a simple brown cardboard box that fits through any letter box. Open it and you have three little parcels of goodness waiting for you, all individually packed (in biodegradable packages of course) so you can eat them straight away or keep them until you want them. And underneath each box there is an image of freshly mown grass just to remind you that everything you're eating is fresh, healthy and 100% real, nothing artificial about it. Another nice touch just to make you feel extra healthy and good about your choice, the Graze nutrition team include a little summary of the nutritional value of all your tasty snacks so you can feel really virtuous.

Simple and brilliantly done, plus as an introductory offer they're offering the first box for free and the second half price. I tried it and I'm hooked. Try it for yourself.

All things Mac

After years of gazing wistfully at the simple elegance of the Mac but being too scared to abandon all that I knew and head off into the unknown I finally crumbled. Yes I bought myself a Macbook and the best thing about it is that the transition hasn't been painful at all. I don't miss being able to right click and I definitely don't miss the frequent crashes I became used to. And let's be honest, it is a thing of real beauty.

Not long after I converted to the Mac I decided I needed, not wanted you understand, but actually needed an iPhone. I love it! It has everything I could possibly need in a small pocket sized computer. There's just one problem. It's just not that great as a phone.

Yes you can browse the web, use Google Maps so you never get lost, access all of your contacts, sync your calendar, send emails and do a million different and indispensable things. However you can't do really simple things that you normally do with a phone like save a draft of a text message, or see how many characters you've already used in the SMS message you're writing. I'm getting used to it but I'm really hoping that Apple are working on a new version which will make the iPhone better, more of a phone really.

Return to Reality

After a year of traveling the globe it really was about time to get back to the real world. It was amazing to be able to take a year off and travel for so long and visit so many unique places. I tried things that I never thought I'd have the courage to do, hang-gliding over Rio, diving with sharks in Borneo and 5 day treks into the wilderness in Peru and Bolivia.

It's funny though because traveling actually becomes your job, you settle into a routine of planning your next location and booking all of the essentials, and I know it sounds insane but it actually does become your job. Obviously a pretty amazing job - if only you could get paid for doing it life would be perfect!

Also having the same conversation every time you meet someone new becomes a bit tedious after a while, 'Where are you from?', 'How long are you traveling for?', 'Where have you been?', 'Where are you going?'. In the end you long for the simple things, like meeting a friend and chatting about everything under the sun and being surrounded by people who actually know something about you. So I was definitely ready to come back after 12 months of traveling.

But... now that I'm back a while and I've caught up with all of my friends it's actually starting to feel like I was never away. Nothing has really changed and the travels feel more and more like a lovely dream. Also getting emails and messages from friends who are still traveling really isn't helping. While I'm sitting in watching the Blue Planet on TV they're over in New Zealand actually diving Poor Knights! It just doesn't compare.

Oh well at least I have my memories and about 12,000 photos! Thankfully London is a pretty exciting place to be and with lots of exciting opportunities popping up I think I have enough to keep me busy. Perhaps I can start planning a little weekend away...