Regardless of how much you earn — Happiness is a slippery little bugger. It doesn’t help that modern society makes the pursuit of it rather bloody difficult. Apparently, you can only find it in the bottom of a pot of gold that’s been used to buy the biggest possible car / house / *insert item here.* Not…

Or how Croatians build relaxation into their everyday life — There is no official dictionary definition for Pomalo (pronounced pom-AR-lo). And yet it’s essentially the unofficial slogan of the Dalmatian coast — the craggy, island-dotted Western edge of Croatia’s coastline. You’ll hear it and see it played out almost every single day, It means: Take it easy. Relax. Don’t stress…

There are more advantages than meets the eye. — 19 months ago, I moved out of my three-bedroomed home. Since then, I’ve apartment-hopped across Europe, living in abodes ranging from 300 to 600 square feet. I’ve loved nearly every single one of them. I’m a fan of small spaces and nowhere does them better than mainland Europe. Considering one…

On knowing what is enough for you and your career — The split second before they announced our name, I realized we’d won. Something about the way the announcer’s mouth moved to create a “V” shape for Vino Vero, my wine store’s name. We had just been named the best independent wine retailer in the UK. My husband and I exploded…

And saved thousands of dollars in the process. — There is no prescribed list of items you should (or should not) own in order to live a simple life. Having said that, sometimes it’s useful to peek into other people’s lives to see what they thought was worth keeping and what wasn’t. My motivation for simple living largely comes…

Women are conditioned to be more stressed by excess stuff than men, and it’s doing them serious harm — Every time I listen to one of The Minimalists’ podcasts, I’m struck by how many of their callers are women. I decided to dig around to find out if or how Minimalism affects women differently from men. Spoiler alert: there is a difference. And it doesn’t bode well for women. …

There is no such thing as doing a country wrong — When I tell people I slow travel, they look at me like I’m nuts. OK, that’s unfair. They think it’s great until they ask me what I do all day. …

8 years a minimalist and I’ve not got it all figured out just yet. — It’s not an easy thing to write about your failures as a minimalist when you make your living writing about the subject. But simple living is a damn hard lifestyle. Eight years into my journey and I still make mistakes. Often the same ones over and over. I believe we…

And why the world needs it this year more than ever — Eurovision is the highlight of my year. For the last 15 years, the second weekend in May has become more important to me than Christmas. If I was ever on Mastermind, Eurovision would be my specialist subject. For me, this contest is more than just a competition. It’s a gloriously…