You may remember that a few weeks ago I went to Bologna for work. Well, I am pleased, finally, to be able to share the fruits of my labours that weekend: this article for FLYER Magazine about the amazing new Curti Zefhir helicopter. This lovely little machine an exciting development for the helicopter world, as it’s a two-seat turbine with a parachute (the first in the world with this innovation). It was already an honour to be asked to fly it – but even more so as I was the first woman to fly it! Here I am with the Curti team, including the two test pilots. As you can see, the sun was alrea ..read more

It’s been 17 years since my first and only visit to Bologna. I had been here on a ‘Grand Tour’ with an old boyfriend at the tender age of 19, at that point woefully untravelled, full of wide-eyed wonder at the simplest differences from life back home and incapable even of appreciating any foodstuff other than a margherita pizza. Indeed, on that first trip to Italy I ate the aforementioned pizza for lunch and dinner every day for three weeks. It was a more sophisticated and well-travelled Rachel who returned to Bologna this weekend, gratefully dispatched here on a work trip, of sorts, to fly an ..read more

I’m down in Wiltshire staying with my mum for a couple of days, as I quite often do since my dad died. Having unexpectedly got to a temporary lull in my work To Do list, I treated myself to a morning wandering around my old home town of Frome, just across the border in Somerset, where I was confronted by an array of some of my earliest childhood memories. There was the Memorial Theatre, where my dad took me to see a stage version of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang when I was about five or six. There was the house where, aged about seven, I had my first sleepover with a friend, who tricked me into thin ..read more

After taking the longest break from travel in my whole adult life thanks to the wretched pandemic, I was pleased to read, a few weeks ago, that Norway would become the first country in Europe to remove all travel and domestic virus-related restrictions, meaning that anyone can come and go as they please with no hassle (or expense) around testing, proving vaccination status, pointless forms or any of the other measures of dubious efficacy currently blighting the travel industry. It was the moment I’d been waiting for, and within 12 hours of reading the news I had booked myself a short break to ..read more

It’s been a while! After what it’s fair to say have been a dreadful few months, it’s come as a great relief to be getting some normality back. I suddenly felt today as though it’s time for me to start blogging again, and so here I am! And what better way for me to kick off my return than by telling you all about my first helicopter adventure since before the pandemic. I’d booked the trip two or three weeks in advance, so I was delighted when the weather finally settled and we were blessed with beautiful blue skies. I’m flying from Cotswold Airport (Kemble) now – after everything that’s happene ..read more

I wish I could be writing this long-overdue post under happier circumstances, but the fact of the matter is that, even without the latest lockdown and continual stream of doom and gloom in the news, the last few weeks have been horrendous for my family and me. On Christmas Eve, something really devastating happened. My dad, while out for an early morning run, had a sudden catastrophic heart attack and died pretty much instantly. He was only 61 years old, fit and healthy, and went running several times a week. To say that it’s been the most horrific shock is an understatement, and even over a m ..read more

When the UK went into lockdown back in March, I was just emerging from the two weeks of self-isolation I talked about in my last post. A fortnight stuck indoors alone had been really tough mentally; I like living on my own, but that’s only because the solitude is tempered by a busy life featuring travel, flying, restaurants and other adventures with a variety of lovely friends. Take all that away, and there’s nothing to counter the daily loneliness that’s part and parcel of working from home on one’s own in a top-floor flat where dogs, tragically, aren’t allowed. As I had discovered, there’s a ..read more

I wasn’t going to write about this on here, but as the coronavirus situation escalates and social distancing/self-isolation look to be something we’re all going to have to experience in the coming weeks and months, I thought it might be helpful to share my own experiences of self-isolation so far, along with some tips to help you stay sane if you have to put yourself into quarantine. I’m absolutely fine, by the way – but I’m in week two of self-isolation after returning from Italy just before it went into lockdown. So it’s been the #quarantinelife for me, and I’m sure this won’t be the last ti ..read more

I’m devoting today’s post to something I’ve changed my relationship with this year: sleep. We’re all familiar with the advice that we need to get eight hours’ sleep a night, but I’m sure many of us are guilty of not getting anywhere near that. I certainly wasn’t, until recently. But, after too many days where I felt groggy all day long, I decided it was time to do something about it, and I thought I’d share my tips in case sleep is something you also struggle with. The bedroom My mission to sleep better started with making my bedroom the most comfortable space possible. I chose the most luxuri ..read more

Last year, I unexpectedly found myself alone in Malaga for the Easter weekend (it’s a long story!). Clearly I never got round to writing about it at the time, but I’m slowly working through my backlog of posts and can at least get this one written in time for anyone who may be planning their own Easter there! I discovered that Malaga is a surprisingly cultural city break destination if you ignore the Costa del Sol’s reputation for cheap package holidays. So keep reading for some more highbrow things to do on a long Easter weekend in Malaga… Easter processions I hadn’t realised quite how much E ..read more