Thessa lives in Amsterdam and works as a digital marketeer. She’s also a keen traveller and surfer. I wanted to talk to her about how the pandemic had impacted her life in Amsterdam. From photos on social media it looked like life was good full holidays and lots of fun. However, there was one photo of her with her Dad that caught my attention and made me realise that life in Amsterdam had not been as carefree as I’d thought.

Early on in the conversation it is clear that lockdown life in Amsterdam was just as hard as everywhere else. As Thessa says she didn’t put everything on social media! The Netherlands had a curfew of 9pm and then 10pm until the end of April.  This means that you see a stream of people biking home as fast as possible just before ‘night clock’ to avoid getting a €95 fine.

Thessa also talks about how hard it was working from home with limited interaction with people. How in the winter when it got dark early, and the weather was ‘shitty’ it felt like ‘groundhog day’. It makes sense then that when she was allowed to travel to Tenerife on a surfing holiday she jumped. She talks about how freeing it was to go to the beach and rent a board. Returning from Tenerife to hail and cold weather was hard but Thessa found ways to look after herself and focussed on activities that gave her joy such as cycling and running.

As Thessa says ‘she’s a positive person’ and that is clear even when she talks about having to change jobs in lockdown and embracing her Dad for the first time in months wearing an old festival waterproof poncho on backwards. Here’s hoping she got to wear her high heels at her first party with ‘more than four people’ a few weeks after we spoke. The interview was recorded on Wednesday 9th June @ 5pm CEST.

 https://www.instagram.com/thessaplevier/

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Flora owns Flora’s Food and Kitchen which is a catering business based in Exmoor on the border of Devon and Somerset. She caters for ‘lots of lovely celebrations’ weddings, dinners and parties as well as doing work for holiday let companies going in with her team to cater for guests. She is very passionate about her business and it’s clear she loves catering for people providing seasonal, local and sustainable meals and helping people to learn how to cook which she sees as a little gift she can share.

Ironically, Flora expanded the business in 2019 and had her best year so when the pandemic arrived she says ‘I was poleaxed I was in shock actually I had never not worked or been able to work in my life’. Once she got over the shock she realised she had to diversify and started providing vegan and vegetarian meals to The Blue Pantry a zero-waste shop. She also decided to upskill and did a digital marketing course with @TechPixies. This helped her to gain confidence online and she now gives 'live' cooking lessons on instagram @florafoodandkitchen and also gives group cooking lessons on Zoom where you get to learn how to make sushi and lots of other delicious meals. 

Whilst doing these things helped the last year has been very hard. Christmas was particularly tough as Christmas celebrations were all called off a few days before. This left Flora with loads of food that had been prepared for guests but was no longer needed. Determined not to throw it away she found out about a food project called The Wivey Food Project and was able to give them meals which they could distribute. This is an ongoing food project which she now volunteers for providing meals to support the local community.  

This past year has shown Flora she can do far more which means she now has an online presence and a space to provide 'live' lessons and group cooking classes. January 2022 also sees her hosting her first retreat at Berry House. The interview was recorded on Wednesday 9th June @ 10 am BST.

https://florasfoodandkitchen.com/

Flora’s retreat - the information will go live this week, ready for people to sign up…;) https://bit.ly/3hjNKIu

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Amy Stevens is a Canadian but has lived and worked abroad as a hotelier for many years. For the last 7 years, she has been based in UAE and more recently moved from Abu Dhabi to Dubai. Ironically, she chose to live in the UAE as it is an easy six-hour flight to many interesting destinations like Sri Lanka and the Maldives. However, the pandemic had other ideas and she has been grounded for the past year.

Amy talks about how the UAE went into a short strict lockdown very early on in April 2020 just when the rest of the world was realising the gravity of the situation. She describes watching the pandemic roll out across the world from the relative safety of her apartment in Dubai as like watching a bad movie again and again!

Things may sound a bit dreamy in Dubai compared to the rest of the world but as it is a key tourism destination how the pandemic is fairing globally is very important. Like everywhere else jobs took a huge hit initially and Amy talks about there being a mass exodus from Dubai with moving trucks everywhere. Dubai has been open to tourism since July 2020 though and hotels have been busy since then with a surge in demand for staycations.

Amy is a huge supporter of animal welfare and has four rescue cats and a fifth at the moment which is up for adoption - she is not a crazy cat lady though! She talks about one of the joys and one of the challenges of living in Dubai as being the condition of the animals. 

This episode gives you a great insight into how the pandemic impacted people living in the UAE and what is happening right now. Everyday life is almost back to normal but one thing Amy is desperate to do is travel - she's planning her first trip outside the UAE to Santorini this summer. The interview was recorded on Thursday 27th May @ 7 pm UTC.

Website and Facebook page about adopting cats from UAE:
thefurs.ae
https://www.facebook.com/groups/Dubaicats

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Esther is a frontline worker who works as an occupational therapist so has a unique perspective of the pandemic and how working on the frontline impacted her and her family. She also has a special interest in mental health and is a wellbeing practitioner – she has also experienced postpartum psychosis. 

In fact, she was on the road to recovery from postpartum psychosis and had just started to come off her medication when the pandemic hit in early 2020. This was not great timing and as the general public started clapping for frontline workers every Thursday the seriousness of the situation really started to hit home. This pushed Esther to come up with a self-care plan and she decided to only focus on committing to her job, her family and her own wellbeing. Looking back now Esther feels that what she has gone through this past year has really made her stronger.

Esther also talks about getting Covid-19 and how it affected her mentally and physically. How incredibly supportive her work colleagues were and what additional support there is out there for frontline workers (www.dutytocare.info/). Esther’s advice to us all is ‘don’t forget the importance of resting and sleeping. 

This really is an emotive episode and made me think about how I coped with the pandemic and how different it must have been for frontline workers. Esther shares so much about what she went through personally and how it has helped her grow as a person. 

Esther recently changed jobs and moved to Wiltshire from London and is enjoying wild swimming and having fun and living in the moment. The interview was recorded on Friday 14th May @ 11 am BST.

Instagram: @estherlinton
Websites mentioned are: www.ways2-wellbeing.com and www.dutytocare.info/

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Jana Bakunina is an inspirational go-getter, writer and intrepid traveller who doesn’t allow much (except total lockdown) to get in the way of her love of travel. When she is not travelling she is always busy cooking up delicious food, feeding her cacti and writing – she has already written a book ‘Bird’s Milk’ and a play the title of which she is keeping under wraps and now she has started on a book of short stories.

Don’t be fooled though her real love is travel and she managed to continue doing this when the rest of us were hiding in our houses even when lockdown started to ease. When she couldn’t travel abroad she was inspired by a book she’d read to travel in the United Kingdom and has started to walk the entire South West Coast Path – what is a bit of rain when you get these amazing views!

Joking aside Jana has great inner strength and suffers from CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome) sometimes referred to as ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis). Some days are very tough but this doesn’t stop her and she continues to explore and push herself to travel or be more creative by setting herself new challenges.

What will happen next? Well, I can tell you you don’t want to miss out so make sure you follow her Instagram page as I can guarantee there will be more adventures to come. This is a great episode to tune into she’s funny and is full of aspirational stories believe me I’ve only told you the tip of the iceberg and there is lots more to hear so you don’t miss out!
 
Jana grew up in Russia but is now based in London with her travel proof cacti collection. The interview was recorded Thurs 5th may@1pm BST.

Instagram: @janabakunina
Website: www.lifetonic.co.uk/articles and www.lifetonic.co.uk/articles/may-13th-2021 (specific article on the South West Coast Path)

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Kirsty set up Opening Doors Consultancy a year ago – before the first lockdown - after a family move to the Netherlands didn’t happen. She found herself unexpectedly unemployed, but she didn’t panic instead she looked at her skillset and realised helping people speak with confidence was something she was passionate about which would also fit around school hours.

Ironically though lockdown meant she had to put everything on hold as her 3-year-old daughter needed her – this meant the business didn’t start up again until January this year. Kirsty looks on the positive side though as she had time to work out how to move her business from face to face to online. This is something she has successfully done, and you can get lots of tips on how to feel more confident speaking on camera or video conferencing.

As a child, she had to have speech therapy after an operation, and this led her to study at drama school and become a working actor. After a ‘lightbulb realisation’ that might never be able to afford to buy a house on what she earned, she went back to study at university. But, after working hard on an essay it was returned with red pen all over it – this caused Kirsty to have a dyslexic breakdown and led her to get officially tested for dyslexia and dyspraxia. She was 37 years old!

These life experiences explain why Kirsty is so caring and an all round confidence booster. She knows her stuff and I have certainly benefited. There are some really useful tips in the interview so get listening! I wish I’d practised with my new bit of tech before the interview too as… yes you’ve guessed it there was a malfunction just at the end of the interview. The lesson is always to listen to Kirsty she has great advice…;) The interview was recorded Thurs 6th [email protected] BST.

Website: www.openingdoorsconsultancy.co.uk/
Instagram: @ openingdoorsconsultancy
Facebook: @www.openingdoorsconsultancy.co.uk 

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Ola started her podcast @unpolishedmum about the trials and joys of motherhood during the pandemic and hasn’t looked back. I was blown away by her content and how she’s developed it over the past few months. To be honest she was very aspirational in why I decided to take the plunge and start my podcast. Those who want to hear from someone who talks honestly about life in a funny and upbeat manner while giving some great advice must check this episode out. 

Ola is now based in Sussex but was brought up in Poland. She also has another business called The English Owls also set up and launched during the lockdown. The interview was recorded the day after my birthday (I was feeling a little tired) on Friday 23rd April @2.30pm BST.

Website: theunpolishedmum.com/
Instagram: @unpolished_mum
Facebook: @unpolishedmum

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Georgina chats to Bali-based modern bohemian and founder of sustainable fashion company ‘Eco Gypsy’ Electra Gillies about her unique experiences of living in Bali and running a fashion business during the pandemic. The interview was recorded on Wednesday 12th May 2021 at 4.30 pm SGT. 

😷 UPDATE: This video was recorded before the Delta variant arrived in Indonesia. Electra has asked that anyone who watches the video consider donating to UNICEF as many children are now dying from Covid-19.

Instagram: @ecogypsy @ecogypsyhouse @electra.ecogypsy
www.ecogypsy.net/

Georgina chats to Canadian MBA student and ex-Londoner Marisa about her unique experiences of living in London and then going home to study during the pandemic. The interview was recorded on Wednesday 21st April 2021 at 10 am EST.

Georgina chats to London based founder of Turn Wild Ian about his unique experience of running an outdoor travel company specialising in wilderness expeditions during the pandemic. The interview was recorded on Friday 16th April 2021 at 8.45am BST.

www.turnwild.com/
www.facebook.com/turnwildexpeditions
www.instagram.com/turnwild/