Monday, May 12, 2014

Jane’s 2014 Update!

Jane With Her Head In The (House In The) Clouds

Can it really be nearly 5 years since I updated this blog about me?! Fortunately my other blogs are a lot more up to date and I suppose that it’s normal that when you’re really busy the last thing you think about is yourself.

Where to start?!

I featured my mum in the last update and she was a very big part of my life following that post. She was not very happy in her residential home, the cost went up and up, interest rates (and her income) went down and down and so we decided that I could manage her care better and give her a better quality of life. That and a few other things led to me relocating to a bungalow in Suffolk and moving her in with me. It was an intense but very rewarding couple of years during which we had a lot of fun and I learnt a great deal about the care and health systems and what life was like for an elderly person. I could write a whole book on that and maybe I still will….

Unfortunately mum died in 2011 at the ripe old age of 91 but the bungalow in Suffolk still suits me very well and I have found other ways in which to put what I have learnt from her to good use. My town now has an active Good Neighbour Scheme, with 30 volunteers, which I helped to found, and I have more time for the work I enjoy most – writing.

Croatia is still a big part of that – I know it better than I know anywhere and have so many good friends and contacts there. Not a day goes past when there isn’t some kind of good news story and it’s first on my list of places to visit when I can store up enough spare time. Now I have a dog, it normally means a trip in our campervan but the journey is almost as good as the destination! Read more about Croatia  on Croatia Online or Croatia Cruising Companion

Suffolk is also a pretty fascinating and alluring place – great people, an easy going traditional ( mostly rural) culture, seaside, magnificent landscapes, great local produce, plenty of wartime and other history and much, much more. You can get a taste of it  on Suffolk Online

And my other area of  journalistic expertise, sparked in Croatia and honed through many recent years of researching and writing for the leading superyacht magazine, is  international superyacht marinas. Below are just some of the publications I have written, edited and/or contributed to.

Superyacht Owner's Guide To Montenegro & The Adriatic

Superyacht Owner's Guide To Croatia

Superports 

What’s next you ask? Well, as soon as I know you’ll be able to read it here and hopefully elsewhere!

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Today’s photo is me sitting outside The House In The Clouds in Thorpeness, Suffolk.