Why Living In The Alps Is The Best Kind Of Lifestyle

The season is slowly coming to an end – and I’m already starting to miss the mountains.

My life before moving here was quite different. Waking up at 6am, riding an hour on a busy commuter train into London and eating breakfast at my desk by 8.30am.

The beauty of working remotely from the Alps is I have so much more time to myself in the morning. I get to practice yoga, meet up with a group of girls to get sweaty with circuit training, go snowshoeing – all before sitting down at my desk at home to work 9.30am.

vita-coco-cafe

Yoga is the number one thing that gets me up and awake in the morning. But sometimes you need something else to wake you up, right? I find coffee a bit strong and overpowering in the mornings, but I’ve started hopping on the coconut water band wagon – and I absolutely love it.

Vita Coco have brought out their new flavour – Vita Coco Cafe – it’s contains 100% natural coconut water plus a shot of a espresso to give you that much-needed energy boost in the morning.

Number one tip? Serve it ice cold. We’ve wedged a couple in the snow outside before to keep them cool. When I’ve spent too much time in the shower and don’t have time to wait for the coffee to brew, it’s ideal to grab out of the fridge or throw in your backpack.

After that, it’s back to editing the magazine I work for, Cooler, before squeezing in a run or a walk up to our favourite mountain hut for lunch – La Crapahute. The pace in the Alps is something different altogether. Life is more about getting outdoors and being active, rather than sitting in front of the TV.

What do you find wakes you up in the morning?

#lessbrewingmoredoing

This blog post was sponsored by Vita Coco Cafe

Wild Camping In The Outer Hebrides

It’s 4pm on a Friday. I should be in the office. Instead, I’m sat on the edge of a cliff looking over a deserted beach with a beer in hand, watching the surf roll in below. This is the Isle of Lewis and Harris, the most north-westerly island in Britain, and there’s not a soul in sight.

It all started with a competition. One Wednesday night after a few beers, I entered a competition to win a weekend’s stay in a high-tech inflatable tent from Heimplanet. You just had to pick a destination in the UK you’d like to visit and say why.

I pulled up Google Maps. With the same deliberation that a monkey might give a dart flung at a dartboard, I chose the Outer Hebrides. A week later, I received an email saying I’d won. “Shit!” I texted my boyfriend Ed, “Now we actually have to go to the Outer Hebrides.”

I’d done no research. The flights were gobsmackingly expensive. All I knew was it’s very far away and they chain swings up in playgrounds on Sundays so children can’t play on the ‘day of rest’ – and I wasn’t even sure if this was true.

Three months later, we touched down in Stornoway airport on a tiny 36-man propeller plane. Air Traffic Control was waving to the pilot as we came to a halt. I could tell already this was going to be a place like no other.

Read the full piece on Mpora.com. Photos by Nina Zietman.

How To Not Lose Your Buzz After The First Week Back On Your Snowboard

Last week, I cried in the middle of the mountain. Tears streaming down my face and misting up my goggles. I wasn’t injured, I wasn’t in pain. I was just totally frustrated at my snowboarding.

It sounds stupid, right? My boyfriend was patiently coaxing me down the hill. I’d asked him for tips on perfecting my turns and getting more movement in my snowboarding. I wanted to be ready to tackle steeper slopes and deep powder. And yet I was totally pissed off.

My legs weren’t bending enough, I wasn’t getting the right flow, my coccyx had taken a beating.

At the beginning of any holiday (or in my case, season), I suffer from lack of confidence and stiff legs. Who doesn’t? But it’s not the be all and end all. It doesn’t mean you’re going to be a shit snowboarder for the rest of your life.

Here are my tips for when your legs are shaking and you feel like throwing your snowboard at the nearest tree and/or good snowboarder…

Chill out, man

tea-cottage-woods

There is totally no need to stress. No one is watching. No one really cares if you look like a complete div. Getting stressed out will only ruin your day (and probably your riding partner’s).

Take a deep breath. Smile. Plough on – or just take a break. Go and get yourself a well-deserved beer, before having a second go at it. No one expects you to be ripping on day two or even week two.

Take lessons

OK, so your boyfriend may mean well when he tries to give you some technique tips, but it’s an all-round better idea to get yourself a lesson. Private lessons are best, as the instructor will totally focus on what you want to achieve from your snowboarding and give you some exercises to take away.

It sounds almost stupidly simple, but when you’re on a season and skimping as much as possible, you’re probably not going to want to fork out for a lesson. Do it, it’ll totally be worth it.

Practice, practice, practice

helen schettini header

You’re going to fall over. A lot. But that’s OK. As a wise woman once said, if you’re not falling over, you’re not trying hard enough. Get out there every day you can, even if it’s a total white out or you’ve only got the morning to spare. Every minute you spend on the mountains is another minute of experience. So ignore that hangover, pull on those thermals and get out there!

Count the small victories

Flats are my enemy. Every time we scoot to a chair lift I don’t know – and there’s a big flat run up – I  end up unstrapping and walking the rest of the way. Picking up speed is terrifying at first, but when you get the hang of rocking edge-to-edge, you’ll be well chuffed when you finally make it all the way along the bastard cat track.

I’ve now started riding all the way up to the bottom of the lift I could never quite reach before. Small victory, but still worth counting.

You're not as bad as you think you are

jamie anderson snowboarding

Get rid of those negative thoughts, woman! You are not as bad as you think you are. In fact you’re better than half the punters on this mountain. Buck up those ideas and get shredding.

Photo credits from top: Roxy/Matt Georges, cottageintheoaks.com, Billabong, Helen Schettini, SASS Global Travel, Jamie Anderson

Is This The Best Place To Work In The World?

When you work remotely, things can get kind of weird. You start wearing really strange combinations of clothes. Singing to yourself becomes a regular occurrence because, y’know, no one is there to see or hear you mimicking Mariah Carey. Showering? Who needs showering?

There are definite perks to not commuting to an office everyday, but where does the balance lie? What would the ideal workplace be?

People often say things like ‘near the beach’ or ‘with sleeping pods for daytime naps’ or even just ‘with a decent coffee machine’. Well, I’ve come across somewhere with all of this…

Introducing The Surf Office. It’s a surf house located in Santa Cruz, California with co-working space for freelancers to come and work with others. It’s got a large communal work area with Skype conference rooms, a yoga room for post-work sessions, surfboard storage room because there’s a friendly reef break just 2 minutes walk away.

After work you can go for a hike, grab food from the organic supermarket down the road, head to the local brewery or just grab a drink in the surf house with your co-workers. The idea is you break up the monotony of a normal working day with fun, outdoor activities.

As someone who is now working remotely, this sounds like an awesome idea. It’s a chance to meet other people, get that work-life balance that we’re all hankering after. After all you can’t dance around in your pyjamas to the Frozen soundtrack with peanut butter on a spoon while co-working, can you…

The best news? They’ve got another Surf Office located in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria. So c’mon then Europeans, when are we going?

A Really Great Mini Documentary About Living In Antarctica

It’s bigger than Australia, it’s home to around 5,000 people every year and it’s the only continent that’s never seen a war. Temperatures can dip as low as -89°C. It may be the coldest, windiest and driest place on earth – but this film will make you want to visit (and possibly live in) Antarctica.

Welcome To Union Glacier charts the lives of 10 people who live in a camp on the Union Glacier in West Antarctica. It’s a hub for scientists and tourists coming to explore the region. It doesn’t show any grand achievements or epic adventures, just the ordinary lives of people living in an unusual and remote place.

If you like Wes Anderson-style films and adventure travel, then make sure you settle down with a cup of tea and watch this film tonight.

How To Keep Fit In The Winter

When the nights start drawing in and the days are cold, it’s hard to stay motivated to get that butt out the front door and do some exercise. In the mountains, skiing and snowboarding just isn’t really enough. Particularly when you think about all the cheese and alcohol that’s being taken in.

So whether you are in the mountains or just need some motivation to get out the front door, here are a few tips from me…

YOGA

I love yoga in the winter. It’s a great way to stretch out after a day stuck behind a desk or even to ease those aching muscles after a shred session. In London, there’s a fab class called Yoga For City Surfers – it’s a nice mix of male and female landlocked surfers who want to stay in shape. If you want to practice at home, make sure you try Yoga with Adriene – she is the bomb.

INTERVAL TRAINING

I hate the term ‘interval training’. But it is a really great way to work out in the winter with other people. In Morzine, we go to a bi-weekly Tabata class in a really nice lady’s apartment. Tabata is like circuits – it’s eight exercises done eight times over for twenty seconds with ten seconds rest in between. Six women in a living room huffing and puffing might sound like a squish, but it’s really motivating and man, do you ache the next day. Get on Google to find your local class or try the nearest gym.

RUNNING

Do you ever get that weird pain in your throat when you run in the cold? It really puts me off running when the temperatures are freezing outside. However, it is totally possible. The key is layering up. I love these tops from Sweaty Betty plus their running jacket and would buy ALL of them, if it didn’t seriously affect my bank balance. You can even run in the snow and ice with these grippy running studs from Yaktrax.

SWIMMING

It might sound totally obvious, but swimming is one of the best all-round ways to keep fit. It’s super low impact, so if your body is under a lot of strain or injured it won’t make it worse. It works out legs, bums, tums, arms, the lot. Plus it’s nice and warm and doesn’t involve going outside when you don’t want to.

WALKING

Get out for a winter hike. It’s so easy – and you don’t feel like you’re working out – but the number of times I’ve kept off the pounds just walking to and from my house is unbelievable. Take a friend, borrow a dog, ditch the car and walk instead.

Photos by Johs. Musaeus and myself

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Ski Snacks: Soft Melted Chocolate Chip Cookies

It’s December, so it’s time for a cookie recipe. This is a truly great cookie. Think warm buttery soft chocolatey goodness. When you break it open, the chocolate chips are still melty inside. That’s what you want in a cookie.

This recipe is from Averie Cooks and the original recipe is in American measurements. So here’s the converted version I’ve used, hence why the numbers are a bit weird. My boyfriend proclaimed them “very, very good” which is praise indeed.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes about 15 large cookies

Ingredients

113g soft unsalted butter
55g soft full fat cream cheese
150g light brown sugar, packed
50g granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
288g plain flour
2 teaspoons cornflour
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch salt, optional and to taste
342g chocolate chips or chunks

1. Mix together in a big bowl the butter, cream cheese, sugars, eggs, vanilla essence and beat until well creamed. If you have an electric mixer, set it to medium speed. Otherwise, get those arms working!

2. Scrape down the side of the bowl. Then add in the flour, cornflour, baking powder, salt. Mix until all combined.

3. Fold the chocolate chips in by hand.

4. Grab a tablespoon and spoon each mound onto plate. Flatten them with your hand. Cover in cling film and put in the fridge for two hours. (Averie Cooks says don’t cook without chilling first, otherwise they’ll come out a mess) I went and watched this documentary while they chilled.

5. Pre heat the oven to 180°C. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper. Place the mounds on, at least 2 inches apart. No more than six to eight cookies per tray.

6. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the edges have gone slightly brown but the middle is still pale and undercooked (they keep cooking while they cool). This will keep them gooey when you take them out of the oven. Allow them to cool on the tray for five minutes before moving them onto a cooling rack.

7. The cookies will keep at room temp in an airtight container for one week. You can also keep the dough in the fridge for five days before baking.

Make sure you check out more of Averie Cook’s recipes here. The quadruple chocolate soft fudgey pudding cookies look insane.

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What I Wish I'd Known - Nora Ephron Aged 65

I found this extract in Nora Ephron’s book I Feel Bad About My Neck a few years back. Nora wasn’t an adventurer (in the typical sense) but she did win an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for When Harry Met Sally, was nominated three more times, wrote dozens of books, plays, essays, articles and has some very sound words of advice.

What I Wish I’d Known

  • You can’t be friends with people who call after 11pm.
  • The world’s greatest babysitter burns out after two and a half years.
  • You never know.
  • The last four years of psychoanalysis are a waste of money.
  • The plane is not going to crash.
  • Anything you think is wrong with your body at the age of thirty-five, you will be nostalgic for at the age of forty-five.
  • At the age of fifty-five you will get a saggy roll just above your waist even if you are painfully thin.
  • The saggy roll just above your waist will be especially visible from the back and will force you to reevaluate half the clothes in your closet, especially the white shirts.
  • Write everything down.
  • Keep a journal.
  • Take more pictures.
  • The empty nest is underrated.
  • You can order more than one dessert.
  • You can’t own too many black turtleneck sweaters.
  • If the shoe doesn’t fit in the shoe store, it’s never going to fit.
  • When your children are teenagers, it’s important to have a dog so that someone in the house is happy to see you.
  • Back up your files.
  • Over insure everything.
  • Whenever someone says the words “Our friendship is more important than this,” watch out, because it almost never is.
  • There is no point in making piecrust from scratch.

Buy a copy of I Feel Bad About My Neck from Wordery from £6.98. Photos from Indie Wire and O+M Co.

Why You Should Go Surfing In Southern Portugal

We were invited by the very kind Clem from Bura Surfhouse to visit their surfhouse in Lagos, Portugal last month – for a long weekend of eating piri piri prawns, surfing and exploring the coastline.

You can read the full article here. In the meantime, these are reasons why you need to get down to that sunny, sunny end of Portugal…

It stays warm all year round

Well, the Portuguese would disagree with you here. But for us sun-starved Brits, 19 degrees in November is not bad going.

The waves are pumping throughout autumn and winter months

It can get big. Like really big. But the beauty of the Algarve is if the waves are too big on the west Atlantic coast, you can head around Cape St. Vincent and explore the more sheltered beach breaks along the south coast.

The people are so friendly

We stayed at the Bura Surfhouse and felt so welcomed, we were pretty much ready to uproot our lives and move their. Lively group meals with delicious Piri Piri prawns,  an outdoor pool, sunshine and a surf-hungry crew, ready to pile into a van and head for the beach – what more could you ask for? Check out their website here.

Portuguese food is really, really good

Pastel de natas (Portuguese custard tarts) are addictive, as Clem will testify. The seafood comes fresh from the market every day. There’s even a place that serves homemade olive oil and tomato flavoured ice creams. Yep, really.

It’s cheap!

Compared to other European destinations, Lagos is not too pricey – particularly in off season (from mid September onwards). Prices for accommodation drop and the beaches are way less crowded. Plus, some of the best experiences are totally free…

There’s plenty to do, even if you don’t fancy surfing

A few of our favourite expeditions included travelling around with TJ’s adventure crew eating mangos and exploring the caves along the south coast, browsing the fish market in Lagos, and walking along the cliffs overlooking Porto de Mos near Lagos.

It’s beautiful

As I said before, crowd-free Lagos in autumn is the Algarve at its best. You can really appreciate the beauty of the coastline without hundreds of families with screaming children clogging up the beaches.

You might even see dolphins…

We went on a stand-up paddleboard expedition from David with SUP Lagos – and were lucky enough to spot around 30 dolphins swimming on by!