The world from my window

It's been non-stop on this colourful trip of a lifetime to Peru, which I won in a travel writing competition run by The Telegraph and Saga. You'd think a Saga holiday might be a bit slow for a woman approaching fifty (albeit from the wrong direction). But I don't think I've been on the go so much since a press trip to the Falkand Islands in 1987. I've seen some wonderful things. We've been here, there and everywhere, on dry land and on Lake Titicaca, by plane and by bus and on foot. The sights, sounds, smells, taste and the feel of things has been incredible. There is lots to tell but I'll just let the pictures do the talking.                      There's been sunrises... ...and sunsets. There's been altitude sickness, discovering your fellow travellers know people you know (it's a small world, after all) and a few coca leaves to chew every day. But the best is yet to com...

It's 6.30pm in Miraflores, the upmarket district of Lima, and the city is beginning to beat. It's cooler now, after the humidity of the day, and the constant fog that grips the capital of Peru at this time of year appears to dissipate. We make for the seafront and the shopping mall. This is the latest film on show at the local cinema... As darkness falls, masses of buses - most of them truncated, clapped-out and full of passengers - trundle by. People wait at zebra crossings for the pedestrian lights to turn green. There are hundreds of cars, many of them honking their horns despite signs everywhere shouting out silencio over a backdrop of a crossed-out trumpet. The streets smell of popcorn, perfume, something like Jeyes Fluid, cat pee in the park (full of felines in the flowerbeds) and garlic. Police sirens whirl and clack and a cyclist shouts at a pedestrian (my husband) for stepping out in his path. There are clothes shops selling alpaca designs and b...

They say that good things come in threes... Well, two good things have just happened to me, writing-wise. There's a feature about my year in Corfu in the October issue of Good Housekeeping magazine. One of their feature writers contacted me after reading this blog. I didn't make the front cover but then Tess Daly is rather beautiful, even if I've never actually watched Strictly Come Dancing . And then I had jaw-dropping news that I'd won a holiday for two to Peru (to Peru! ) in a travel writing competition for Saga and The Daily Telegraph. There are two things I'm waiting to hear about, but I won't jinx them by saying what they are.  The moral of this story is you have to be in it to win it - you need to put yourself out there, here and everywhere, if that's what you want. Yes, you'll get rejected - lots of times - and wonder if it's really worth carrying on. But if you love writing, you're passionate about it, you just do it - as w...