Category Archives: restless spinster

A certain slant of light

My goodness me, it’s been nine whole months since I flew back to London from Japan. This was not my plan. I was supposed to be in Mexico by now. But as you’ll probably have noticed, if you’ve been reading this blog for a while, my life quite frequently deviates from the plans I make […]

October 21, 2013
Leave a Comment

On holiday

Project Moderation ended up being a roaring success. (Though I am uncomfortably aware that the only way I could finally manage to achieve moderation was by turning it into something I could win at. Never mind.) The past few hundred miles have been a joyful and glorious exercise in pleasing myself. Here’s how I did […]

October 16, 2012
Leave a Comment

Where are all the women?

Yesterday I had the great pleasure of lunching with Rob Lilwall (famous for Cycling Home From Siberia) and his wife Christine. (In true Chappell style, I forgot to take photos.) The company was scintillating and the dim sum delectable, but I came away feeling slightly uneasy. Neither Rob nor Christine had ever met a woman […]

August 22, 2012
Leave a Comment

O brave new world, That has such women in’t

Women need to get in touch with who they are as women and quit eyeballing what belongs to men. (Comment on Telegraph article about female judo contestants.) Oh yes, there is one reason I’m glad not to be in London right now. It’s big and expensive and muscular, and called the Olympics. I haven’t been able […]

August 9, 2012
Leave a Comment

The loneliness of the long distance

Most of the time I don’t even think about what it means to be a woman on the road. I mean, it’s not as if I have to wake up every morning, pop in my ovaries, strap on my breasts, spend a careful half hour putting on my make-up and then decorously and delicately wend […]

July 31, 2012
Leave a Comment

Out of the wild

Halfway across Qinghai, sensing that I had a cold coming on, I decided to give myself an early night, bought some cake, pitched my tent in a sunny spot between two fields of barley, and rummaged through the (by now substantial) library on my Kindle for some entertainment. (Ercan, the wonderful Turkish cyclist who hosted […]

July 17, 2012
Leave a Comment

A reassuring update

Since I posted last night, I’ve received a great deal of sound advice and wisdom from a great many people. (Thank you.) And perhaps I should have realized that, after all I said about Kohistan, no one was going to say anything other than ‘take the bus!’, for fear of being the one who sent […]

May 8, 2012
Leave a Comment