mel
Somewhat potty-mouthed journalist who documented her 'career gap year', in which she lived out a long-cherished dream to see the world (well, Japan, Australia, South America) here between November 2006 - September 2007, in these pages. Truer than ever to say that since coming home I've been working hard and have only had time for mini-backpacking experiences across Europe, though 2012 may involve some more exotic locales. Onehorsetown Loaferville
MA student of Latin American studies from Autumn 2012, hopefully focusing on my thesis regards the Bolivian secondhand clothing market.
You can email me at melvstern@hotmail.com and see more photos of my trip at my facebook.
Countries visited first time:
Japan
Australia
Chile
Argentina
Bolivia
Peru
Brazil
Uruguay
Since returning:
Spain
Turkey
Germany
France
Italy
Morocco
Scotland
On the list:
The Guianas
The rest of Latin America
Russia
Pakistan
much more...
Travel Blog Posts
Huzzah! I won the 2011 Raffles Hotel writing competition
Published: December 7th 2011Europe » United Kingdom » England » Greater London » Camberwell
December 7th 2011
One door opens, another door closes - I didn't get selected for the finalists of the 2011 Royal Geographical Society/BBC Journey of a Lifetime award, which I was hoping would kickstart my research on secondhand clothing in Bolivia (I got shortlisted again but no cigar), but I have won the 2011 Raffles Hotel writing competition! The prize is a six night stay in their gaffes in Singapore and Cambodia, valid until December 2012; but in honesty the real prize is being recognised for some nice writing, and I'm hoping that this will lead to some commissions in travel journalism in 2012. My entry was a shortened version of my Travelblog about my trek to Macchu Picchu - here it is below (you can read the full, massive version at http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Cusco/Machu-Picchu/blog-176531.html ) Here is what the judge ... read more
Random thoughts
Published: November 22nd 2011Europe » United Kingdom » England » Greater London » CamberwellNovember 22nd 2011
Ironically, after contributing an article to the Dimbleby Cancer Care newsletter about how I've managed to create a new schedule out of my treatment lifestyle and how it has kept me busy and motivated, this week I've lost all my get up and go. After my last treatment on Friday I feel like a cat who has had a run in with a car fender at speed; I feel like a cardboard box with its sides unstuck and flattened out. I just can't be arsed. I've got no more freelance assignments in the to do list - the pitches I've put out there and chased have not come to any fruition - I've kept my diary free of anything fun or interesting until Friday, as I usually do to manage the risk of being too ill ... read more
One step along the freelance road
Published: November 17th 2011Europe » United Kingdom » England » Greater London » Camberwell
November 17th 2011
I've been getting frustrated with how little traction I'm getting with all my freelance pitches. I know that it's hard to get commissioned - even well known, well established journalists with big prizes under their belt tell me most of their pitches are ignored - but I had hoped that my experience as an editor, receiving all manner of pitches and making all manner of commissions, would sharpen my ability to get noticed and know how to approach other editors. It hasn't yet. I've put about 5-6 pitches out there, all to new titles (as in, ones I've never written for and that I have no pre-existing relationships with) - I've only pitched to titles I like to read myself and only pitched articles I myself would read and enjoy. Which means I've been aiming quite ... read more
Today is a good day
Published: August 17th 2011Europe » United Kingdom » England » Greater London » Camberwell
August 17th 2011
The title of this entry is stolen from the famous Macmillan poster advertisements I've seen across London, well before cancer was any part of my life. Some say “today was a good day”; some say “today was not a good day”. And I've now got the personal experience to say that the agency hired to come up wth this line was really listening to Macmillan, because that really boils it right down. I'm now into my second cycle, meaning I have had three injections of ABVD for Hodgkin's Lymphoma stage 3. And the side effects of this internal battle come randomly, by the day, and go again to be replaced by another one. Some days I wake up feeling refreshed and less tired than usual, with no pain, and that has the potential to be a ... read more
two adventures for the price of one
Published: June 24th 2011Europe » United Kingdom » England » Greater London » Camberwell
June 24th 2011
Two blogs in one month contravenes my at-home blogging policy, but there are two adventures coming my way now so it's probably forgivable. I received word last Saturday that I have a place on the MA course! But I recieved that word the day after having an operation to remove a diseased lymph node from my neck: that happened because the quacks believe I've got cancer, lymphoma no less. So I'll be travelling the well-trod 'C' road before I can reach the start of my university year, which means a summer of treatment. A sick sad world it may be, but I'm no better: I've been looking at this news as a tourist looks at a new destination, almost viewing it from above, surveying the finer points of whatever medical and scientific information I can obtain ... read more
All quiet on the south eastern front
Published: June 5th 2011Europe » United Kingdom » England » Greater London » Southwark
June 3rd 2011
This is my first blog entry since becoming unemployed - ahem, I mean 'freelance', as do they all - on May 27. As an earlier blog here details, I've taken a break from my career to go to university. I have taken a bit of a punt in leaving the job without having a place at uni secured, going on faith (as usual) and hoping a little luck will fall upon my cause. Until then, my job is to rest. Which does make me sound like a convalescant grandma: and I sort of am, as I've spent most of my time out of work so far in Kings' College hospital or the local GP surgery, or on the phone to either of them. As dictated by the law of Sod, on my very first day out ... read more
My next trip: to university
Published: March 22nd 2011Europe » United Kingdom » England » Greater London » Holborn
March 22nd 2011
I've been waiting for a big reason to get involve din this blog again and it's turned up. I'm preparing to take another year out of work for travelling: but not the backpacking type. I've quit my job to become a student. I'm applying to study for a Master's degree in Latin American Studies at the University of London, starting September 2011. Note there that I've quit my job but I am still applying for the course. Which means I have no place yet and I'm taking a bit of a leap of faith. I don't finish work until end of May so I've got two more pay packets to enjoy before I become unemployed. I'll then have three months of said unemployment to play with before I start studenthood - that's if I get in. ... read more
The Backpack and the Elephant in the Room
Published: March 31st 2010Europe » United Kingdom » England » Greater London
March 31st 2010
It is nearly two years since I wrote anything on this blog (aside from the note on Mocorro I just found as saved, not published - I just published it now). Immediate rush of guilt as that is not because I have not done any travelling - a smaller, much more practical backpack has gathered miles going by train, bus and plane through france northern spain, morocco, germany, scotland and belgium - it's just that I did write on my first every entry here that I would write when I travelled. But since returning from my epic trip of 2006-7 I've been rather busy with another epic journey that has been rooted to just one city. I landed a job as deputy editor of a financial magazine in London about three months after coming home in ... read more
A taste of Islam from Morocco to Spain: So Tasty, It's Moorish
Published: March 31st 2010Africa » Morocco
July 16th 2008
In late June and July I spent a week and a half travelling across Morocco and into Spain. I was gagging to get away from work and the usual pressures of daily life - fair enough, I had a few days in Tuscany in late June, but it was straight bacm into things on my return and I quickly forgot I had had a break - but this was 'the summer holiday' and a long-awaited chance to spend a full stretch of time just me and Alexis too. I can't say it was a relaxing break. But it was invigorating, refreshing, different, new, a bit challenging. Since my big trip (as I now refer to my 10 month international jaunt) I have realised just how much decadence, wastage, laziness, and general blahness daily life in a ... read more
June 25th 2008
I'm not long back from a very nice, slightly classier jaunt to Italy than I'd usually partake in. My friend Cheryl's much-lauded wedding to her intended Mike closed a 2-year engagement with a rather lavish, lovely 2 day affair with 61 guests holed up in a 15th-century castle hidden on a hill about 30 minutes drive from Siena, in the Tuscan countryside - all paid up too, by the happy couple. I went with my bessie mates Sonia and Rosie and we booked ourselves an overnight stay in Siena after the wedding. First of all, I was struck by how picture postcard Tuscany is. That's why they make so much fuss about it. Now I'm usually of the opinion that the best holidays are those in, excuse my soinding crass, poorer countries: Eastern Europe, or South ... read more
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