I recently received negative feedback about certain members of my beloved team. But I didn’t pass the buck. Instead, I apologised and said that I take full responsibility for the mistakes made by my team members. When EL was first created, it was just Turuu and I as driver and guide. It was easier then as it meant we could…
Any ideas? Any ideas what the image represents? This is how our group spent a day recently in Ulaanbaatar – the capital city of Mongolia – at a felting project run by the Buddhist NGO Asral. The group learnt how to clean the wool, process the wool, colour the wool & then how to create by hand these intricate felt…
I am guilty of writing emails like a woman. Yes, I am a woman but it seems I am unconsciously using certain speech habits to soften my email communication. It was my Mum who pointed this out to me – looking over my shoulder one day as I was writing an email and reading the words ‘Hello! Apologies for the interruption…
I recently read a BBC Capital article on why ‘microbreaks’ when working can have a powerful effect on your body and your mind – basically tiny breaks that help to ease your body and reboot your brain. What was interesting is that I read this article during such a break when I spent a few minutes just searching the internet…
Anyone that runs their own small business will agree – there is never (in reality) a moments rest. That’s why I swim – as a way of giving myself a challenge outside of running Eternal Landscapes Mongolia as a business. And I’ve come to believe that winter swimming is good for running a business. I have always swum – I love the…
When people ask me about my love of Dartmoor National Park, one quote I like to give is from the book Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier. Although first published in 1936 and actually about Bodmin Moon over the county border in Cornwall, I feel the following quote provides an apt description of ‘the moors.’ ‘I love these moors ……
“Here’s to strong women: may we know them, may we be them, may we raise them.” Mary Portas I recently went to a talk by Mary Portas where she discussed her new manifesto and book – Work Like A Woman. People seem to have a similar relationship to Mary Portas as they do with marmite. They either love her or…
When you think of Mongolia you might not automatically think of swimming in Mongolia. It’s the second largest landlocked country in the world for a start, more than 30% of its landmass is covered by the Gobi Desert – the world’s 5th largest desert and the number of swimming pools outside of the capital city of Ulaanbaatar can be counted…
One of my favorite quotes about Mongolia comes from Steven J. Bodio’s book *Eagle Dreams*. In just a few short lines, he perfectly encapsulates what draws me back to this incredible country time and time again. He writes: “Each time I return I see constant changes alongside the things that never change. I love its paradoxes. Its space and hospitality,…
Girl Power – a phrase from the 1990s and early 2000s and, as I’m always slightly off-trend, one I continue to use. I use it in relation to my trip assistants – all of whom are Mongolian women. Do I provide opportunities to Mongolian women to tick boxes the equal opportunities box? No. It goes deeper than that. I am…