What does a travel blogger do now?

Many of you connected here in the beginning because of my travel vlogs. Currently, what are travel vloggers doing right now? When might we travel again? Where would I like to go? How do you get yourself up and going each day? I was inspired by Kara and Nate on this video: https://youtu.be/fOGX1Jj6NkU as they speak about changing their daily routine to get up and get going each morning - so I thought, as I often do the same thing, that I would take you with me and we could have a chat along the way. I didn't expect the myriad of emotions which were evoked on this journey.

I had to stop and pause for a while as the views took my breath away - and much as I love to try and keep these films motivational I felt I needed a moment to fix my own oxygen mask for a few moments.  I would have liked to stayed longer but the builders were arriving so I had to get back to normal life and crack on with my day.  So much strength is needed sometimes to carry us through the daily routines and stopping to focus on 'going within' to the core of the essence inside and who we are, what we are doing, can sometimes shake things up inside. 

What has given you time to think lately? What might be different about life after lockdown for you?

How to travel blog during lockdown

Gosh, tricky times now in the life of a travel blogger or Vlogger.



What to do?

Here's my plan: get local. We are now able to visit local places, although I have tried this and I must confess there is a little anxiety coming with this as other people seem less worried about social distancing than I would like.  Nonetheless, I do have a long list of other video ideas to pop in my youtube channel. Such as 
* the best and worse places I have been
* places on my wish list
* when I plan to travel again
* how I manage to find great deals
* updating others on how to cancel their holidays
* getting refunds

Meanwhile, I have been to a couple of my favourite places in Kent. 
Both with strong links to Charles Dickens.

Broadstairs and Rochester. 

The last trip to Rochester was beautiful. See these photos and don't forget to enjoy the music I have added to this Vlog. 

Rochester Castle

The first restaurant I worked in

This beautiful old post box - i'd never noticed it before!

Rochester Cathedral

I love the name of this place "Quills"

Pretty place. Love the chimney

Olivers - a fab restaurant and bar in Rochester

Traditional Red telephone box

Travel thoughts from Mexico

Travel evokes emotions and thoughts.

Most of us feel this but do we get quiet enough to listen and see and pay attention?

My current trip is in Mexico at the huge resort called the Grand Sirenis in Riviera Maya. 
Coming here in a brand new decade of my life (as well as for the rest of the world) has given me some time away from day to day life to figure out my next moves in life. Especially in my writer life. 

Blogging is a love of mine and 9000 of you tune in each month to read what I have to say. My YouTube channel  currently sits at 14,000 views a month. Huge stats for me. 

Do I focus and grow there? I’d love to. But I wasn’t sure about remaining independent or taking a path into being published?

For now, with a few life challenges happening, I’m going to stay indie while I plough on getting laser focused and totally clear. 
One thing I know, mornings sitting in the sun, eating yoghurt and fruit while thinking about life has been one of my favourite (and needed) parts of this trip

Many more posts will follow with tales of the hilarious waiter in the Italian restaurant and the journey  me and my twins have been on during this trip. Is it the last one for us three? 

Wanderlust is back! The Sinai Desert

We have active wanderlust and I couldn’t be more excited for the upcoming trips. Since my last account was hacked, I’m going to be reposting some of my favourite photos from my best trips on my instagram page. 💕

The Sinai desert was full of wonder as underfoot the moon like appearance gave us an unfamiliar feeling. As the sun set and the stars graced us with their genuine mind blowing show, we gazed open mouthed at a sight never before acknowledged in such a way. 💫 This place felt magical and mystery filled the air as much as the coldness did during the transition from day to night. 🌓 We made bread and danced around the fire while drinking sweet hibiscus tea from an aluminium kettle 🌺 Memories like these are timeless.

"Lou, what do you do?"

I totally understand it's a complex subject as to what exactly I do for work. I'm asked this over and over so I will try and explain why I simply answer with, "Well, it's a long answer but basically I'm a writer." 

I write creative non-fiction mostly

I'm also a travel writer, reviewing all inclusive resorts for 'free from' foods.

But I'm also a scientist; a registered nutritionist with a specialism for chronic disease. 

Since I could pick up a pencil, I loved to write.

As a child, letters to thankful Grandparents were written in abundance and compliments of my early writing were welcomed but ignored. Never had I realised the opportunity of pursuing ones dream of being a creative writer might be something life could offer in the form of a “JOB”, so I followed other pathways.

Science saw my love of helping others understand about chronic disease and lifestyle in the form of writing the ‘science’ stuff creatively and in laymens terms (This is something I still occasionally do) yet my postgrad saw encouragement from the incredible academics into writing more narrative non fiction in the form of life writing, writing for trauma and encouraging others to embrace their own stories through memoir.

Being told I have a talent for creative writing was mind blowing and a total dream come true and this has springboarded me into the happiest year of my life. My current work in progress is a narrative about the IVF journey and coeliac disease which of course includes the story of the struggle as a single parent. A happy ending must always follow my writing as we demonstrate strength, independence and self love for my female protagonist (either fiction or non fiction) as she is a lady who believes in chivalry and allows herself vulnerability without apology while remaining upright with valour.

My fiction created a rumble although it was never my intention to write - and I loved it!

Of course I still love science and nutrition. Who couldn’t? It’s more than interesting and I now know exactly what is going on in my body with my chronic illness and why I have it. So now, I’m trying (not easy) to take things a little less frantically in life and pursuing my dream of full time writing. This way, on bad days I can rest and good days I can churn out more words. I love writing Non-fiction in the form of my nutrition blog and reports but I also love romance novels! So....follow my writer journey into my next masters degree in Creative Writing :) My published books so far can be found here: https://amzn.to/2MPtAVX

Check out more of my life on my social media platforms:

*Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/louiseusherwrites

*Twitter:      http://www.twitter.com/louiseusher

*Nutrition:   http://lusherlifenutrition.blogspot.co.uk

*Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/loulusherlife

*Pintrest:     https://uk.pinterest.com/lusherlife/

*Podcast:    https://geo.itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/autoimmune-diet-and-me/id1023129375?at=1001l626&mt=2&ls=1

*Youtube  http://www.youtube.com/louiseusher

Motivational Merch:  Mugs, t-shirts and stuff http://www.cafepress.co.uk/profile/108959736


If you’re a brand and want to get in touch:
Email: lusherlifenutrition@gmail.com

I have changed.

It’s been a long time since I have shared here with you on this blog in this manner.  Tempted to write something about not really knowing why it has taken me so long to type on this blog again (but that would be a lie) let’s just settle in to have a really good heart to heart chat now and see how this progresses for both you and me.

So much has changed; I have changed.  Many curveballs have thrown their way into my life to give me pause for thought. 

Here I sit high in the clouds on a plane to Turkey and I sense now is the perfect time to open up and allow lots to flood out onto this page.  

If you are an original (OG) follower of this blog, you will have seen so many changes over the past ten years since it has been live. Initially brought about through being in total disbelief of the learning around the law of attraction, I thought, “Why doesn’t everyone know this stuff?” And to my surprise I began to learn that many people actually did know! 

There have been many uses for this blog but always coming back to the place of falling into ‘lifestyle’ which sounds lame and wide.  Yet for me, what I love to read about, talk about and share is around lifestyle.  

Within this post I will touch upon a few subjects that I will be bravely expanding on within the next few posts.

Gosh I had no idea how tired I had let myself get but now that I’m on the plane with my work up to date, I am super sleepy but so happy. Happier than I think I have ever known before in my life.  That’s the most incredible thing to say ever.

I shuffle in my seat, hoping to get more comfy on this EasyJet flight but without success.  So in my discomfort I begin to write in my mind and guess I’ll fire up the keyboard and get talking to you guys.

The lack of posts on this blog are due to my stumbling over my words, which is crazy for a writer.  It isn’t the words of course, it’s the subject material.  Sharing such topics sees me open and raw and you will see why as the blog posts unfold.

Let’s begin here, in a place of clarity which has frightened me beyond belief.  Last week I took to the stage with my fellow cohort of post graduate students as we dug deep into our reserves of valour and read our work to an audience of important guests.  Such things seldom make me nervous but emotions were evoked as I realised my potential as an author following the feedback I have gained from the tutors who carefully have us under their wing. During the day, one academic who I trust and respect massively suggested I begin to label my work as memoir.  I gulped visibly and felt myself become mute.  I’ll share the full story with you in a full and open blog post, as I will these other subjects.

There has been the issue of dealing with living with a mother with dementia and I can't even bring myself to talk about it anymore which carries with it huge guilt.  I have tried to bury those selfish feelings but recently I was filmed by a wonderful couple of talented filmmakers and they touched on the story from the point of view of the struggles a career faces rather than, ‘oh this person has dementia and that’s really sad.’ 

A brave move. 

Open to criticism and if I was to really be open and tell you how I feel you’ll likely think of me as a bitch.  Although if you are in that place too, you are likely to understand totally and smile as you realize someone is finally speaking out.  This is a huge topic and I have so much to say around this.

I’ve changed lately.  

After going through the issue of the anxiety as I finished my undergraduate science degree I feel so much happier and less apologetic for who I am. This seems to suit some, not others. But it is what it is and I have had a further health curveball thrown at me which I was going to keep to myself but it’s going to be a long term influence on my life and part of my ‘living’ is going to be involving you guys on my platform with my journey from here on.  So I need to tell you and once again, this will be expanded upon in future blog posts.  

Likely you know I’m dealing with a couple of chronic disease issues, autoimmune related (Crohn's and Ankylosing spondylitis) which need careful attention but are semi-well controlled, well now there is something else.

I had an abnormal smear.

My cervix was biopsied in colposcopy and it turns out I have cell changes they are not happy with.  This has given me a myriad of feelings and I’m currently processing everything while trying to take the best care of myself I ever have.  I decided to bring this into my blog posts and likely will make a YouTube video about it as it's not so uncommon and I think taking out the fear might be helpful in some way, to someone.  Simply sharing how I feel might give someone else some feeling that might be a positive reflection and so I decided to take my head out of the sand and I’m going to write about it.

Signing off this blog post half written, I hope you will all be with me on this rollercoaster journey that I have decided to embrace with white knuckles.  It’s not been an easy decision to start blogging again but I have missed it, I love it and I hope to help spread the love between us.  I promise to give better updates soon....but please know I am ok and things are ok, and we will be okay.

Nathan and I in Turkey

He took me on this jet ski! Living life!

Reach out if you feel you want to and maybe are feeling lonesome....

Love always

Louise xoxo 

Life lessons

Almost time to go home. 🌪 rollercoaster. 

Learning curves. 

Shocks and twists and turns. 

💫 mental health hanging on in there with a few wobbles 

Trips away and epiphanies seems to be a thing. 🏄🏼‍
 Should you keep on these learning adventures despite the Highs and lows? 

Yeah. 
I guess. 
Despite the brain racing and lack of sleep 🇹🇷 Life is blah when it’s flat. 

The ups need to be celebrated and the downs white knuckle ridden. 🌊 But always, always try and keep strong knowing those who love you are always there. 

Phew. Deep. 

👩‍💻 plenty of writing has occurred and such inspired stories. 

So where next? 👠👠

Being a YouTuber

This trip has been more enlightening than I would have imagined.

Thinking I was bringing mum away on her last trip of her life (although I have said that before) to give her a nice time is about as far as I had thought.

Yet within just a few days of being on this beautiful peninsula, and here I was realising that there was an energy shift.  Just like I had back in Egypt in 2009.  Strange.  Unexplainable.
How does this happen?  I wasn't sure.

Julia started it! She and I were watching 'Strings at Sunset' and she spoke to her husband about me.
"I'm sure that's Louise who we watched on Youtube." And came over to ask me.  Yes it was me.  This was a little surreal.  She continued to tell me how she had found the videos helpful and watched several of them.  Wow.  I loved that.
As the week continued, other new friends came and introduced themselves as viewers too.  Often we would just pass each other and they would let me know how helpful my work has been to them.  Ha.  Work.  I love that.  Talk about the best job in the world.  So, yes it is hard work at times but such a blast.  Love it.  Knowing that it's not just out there in the ether is exciting. People are finding this helpful.  And I love making them.

So now I knew what I needed to do with my life.
Which is handy as being here and places like this are helping me to feel so much better in myself physically and mentally.

Going back home sees lots of editing needing to go on which I'm excited to upload. Especially now that this is helping people.  The future looks bright.

Cat friends

My new friend

I love travel.
No secret there

But when it’s outside of the UK I do miss Harley. Bless him.
More a dog person than cat person, I don’t really care where the love comes from when furry friends are around.

In Turkey, these cats seem to know I need some love and just surround me, chatting away and rubbing their whiskers on me 🐾🐾

Lucky?

Particularly sassy

These cats are well taken care of - what a great place to live!

Depressed on holiday?

Ok, so I forgot to take my tablets for 4 days.  

I'm not that person though.  Not that person who needs that tablet?  Without which negative thoughts creep in making me feel blue, sad, inadequate and all?  No surely not.

Maybe (almost definitely) it was the fact I have lots of university work to do.  Like, loads.  And in respect to that work I have certainly lost my muse.  What's the point?  You submit work, you've worked hard on it and they give ALL of us terrible marks.  The feedback is written by a child it seems and the entire thing has me blue.

A looming exam Wednesday. I need to revise.  Should I wing it? I'm honestly feeling that I'm at the end of the line regarding this work.  To the point of feeling excited when I talk about quitting.  

12 weeks to go.  IT would be daft right?

Yet I'm not enjoying this holiday like I thought I might purely for the fact of doing all this work.

No editing of films has gone on while I'm here and that's usually my late night love.  

For today, I will put down the books and do something I love, write.  I will edit a film later maybe.  Definitely walk along the beach (if mum is well enough to be left as the took a downturn yesterday).

Such a shame to feel this black cloud approaching when surrounded by beautiful beaches and the amazing blue sea.

Just goes to show, sometimes the bigger picture of what is going on in your life is the exact thing that is bringing you down rather than the surrounding environment.  Does any of this blog post make sense?  I'm not even sure.  Yet If I share a few photos with you now I will feel proud of them.  Showing Jasmine the world and laughing together is a definite way I would love to spend my life.

12 weeks...

Directly outside the hotel is this prom. Great for walkers.

Love locks are everywhere.  

Never ceases to take my breath away

Watching the sun come up from my balcony.  Sigma lens zooms for this shot. 

Magic and Bali

We believe in Magic on this blog don't we? Initially this blog was born from my love to share all things Law of Attraction.  Still I stand by that as I dream more and more of travel. My latest wanderlust dreams float in my mind to Bali.

Why? I don't even know. But I guess it's thanks to those over on instagram and watching beautifully bodied bikini ladies dipping a toe in a beautiful pool in a beautiful villa.  Buddha heads at the end of the pool. The call to yoga, meditation and healthy food.

Bali is ME.  I think.

Realising this dream I have been watching an amazing guy over on Youtube and seeing his fabulous videos, even supported him on Patreon.  Next thing you know, I'm contacted by Tui (an amazing travel company who I travel frequently with) and informed about them beginning to offer travel to Bali.  Wow....law of attraction in action.

Past travel to the Red Sea

Has this excited me beyond belief?  Yes! So my anxieties kick in and make me think that travelling to Asia for the first time ever would be quite amazing if I have the safety of booking with a reputable company. As opposed to booking a one way ticket. Perhaps I will have a long trip there and think about returning for 2 months with the villa, the buddha head and a coconut delivery guy!  I will do it! I definitely will!

Realising the dream as I spoke about in my last blog post (which went viral by the way, thank you) I'm more keen than ever to get myself that bloggers dream job of posting from abroad, creating IG beauties and informative Youtube videos about travel, food and keeping healthy abroad.

Want to help me? Of course I'm going to ask you to share this blog post for me but also how do you feel about clicking this link to look into booking your next holiday with Tui?  Should you click and book, you are going some way to supporting my efforts with this blog and all the online platforms I am determined to bring you over the coming months.

I'm off to dream of Bali one more time and why not let me know where you dream of visiting? Have to visited many exotic countries or gone travelling? What tips do you have for me?  Please let me have your comments!

Our trip to Centre Parcs

You will love this, we had a great time within the trees! Did you see our recent videos of our trip to Centre Parcs in Woburn Forest?

We love all that Centre parts has to offer Just love it!

Would we recommend Woburn Forest? Absolutely.  

The swimming pool has enough whirls and swirls and activities to keep us amused for hours on end.  Walking through the tress is just refreshing and soul filling.  The accommodation quite second to none.

Our second visit here, I could gladly stay for a long time!

Much love

Louise xoxo

Shall I quit love? (A Najowrimo excert)

This excert is from my NaJoWrimo efforts as I write each day though July.  In this very open and honest post, you see me talking about why I'm thinking of quitting love.

Releasing this writing and all of July NaJo (with my personal snapshots) will be available in book form on  Amazon soon! Follow this page so you know when! 

July 14^th

The Wonder of You

Strange dreams sees me awakening with an odd feeling inside my heart.  As a bride in the dream I was disappointed.  A five-minute ceremony with strangers I hardly knew left me wondering about love this morning.  Will I ever “have it all”?  Is there such a thing?  I watch couples on this holiday of a myriad of situations.  There is Elvis who sang “Wonder of you” to his wife at Karaoke in between using the microphone as an opportunity to publicly declare his love for this lady.  They were older than me, I would say late 50’s and clearly had lots of love between them.

After Elvis left the stage, his wife pretty much ran from her seat to greet him with love and affection, cupping his face with her hands and planting a proper kiss on his lips.  Not proper as in French kissing but a real, heartfelt, true kiss.  She meant it.  No denying that.  They had a balance between being publically decent and showing true love.  A rare thing I feel these days.  Now when I look around the restaurant I generally see couples who have nothing to say to each other, seem disinterested or even at times one partially turns the chair away.  Of course there is the odd Tut when someone says something the other is frustrated with or has simply lost their tolerance to.  Why is that?  What happened between them?  Would it have been an affair?  Some other form of hurt which broke them forever and never quite allowed things to be the same way again.

Do you know of the film “Love Actually”?  Emma – I forget her surname which is unforgivable as she is one of my favourite actresses yet it’s very early in the morning here – who plays a wife who is very nearly cheated on by her husband (who buys the necklace for the secretary) at Christmas while the wife is left with the usual Jonie Mitchell CD…  This realization moment is priceless as she heads to the bedroom to take a breathing moment before taking the children to the school nativity.  I cry everytime as the soft music accompanies this scene – “I’ve looked at life from both sides now”.  We fall in love with this character who seems to be the perfect mother and wife as well as sister for her grieving brother.  All things to all people as many mums are.  Yet the fact that the husband bought the necklace for the secretary (to be honest, I don’t think he really wanted to at all.  It was all very awkward which would see the wife with reason to forgive him) the wife decided that she would blot her tears with the palm of her hand before taking a deep breath, painting a smile and going back to jollying the children along.  After a while we see her confront her husband with the classic line which is something like, “Do you carry on, knowing it will always be a little bit broken?”  What a cracking line.  It will always be a little bit broken. 

I’m long enough in the tooth now to know what that line means.  You stay because it’s easier, because you love that person, because life gets complicated when you break up, yet; things are never the same.  Is this life?  Is this what we should accept?  We are all human after all.  None of us is ever perfect. 

Yet,  Dear Diary (open heart moment) I feel I love with all of my heart.  I would never consider treating my loved one like that if they were also loving me with a whole heart. Yet in my years of loving people, not one has.  Not one has taken that decision to put me first.  Which leaves me with the question of what is love actually about?  Was I put on this earth to discover this and write stories about it?  I have some cracking books to write based on romance stories which were real…. I have also read some cracking stories.  Ones which allow me to become educated about the differences between men and women.  Books like men are from mars.  I get it.  We are different.  The same could be said for every human being.

This time in Gran Canaria was timed perfectly to get away to heal my heart.  I thought this could be something that naturally may happen.  Alas, this is not what I’m feeling.  All I see with my eyes around me and feel in my heart is a lack of love except for the rare case.  This makes me want to quit love.  My twins love me with all their beating hearts.  They would never consider trading me in for a new mum or go looking for a new mum would they?  They just wouldn’t.  No matter how tough things get.  Likewise I would never consider stopping making an effort for them and forgiving their wrong doings. 

Why can’t husbands and wives be the same?