About Me

Let’s be honest. You’re not here because you want to know about me, you actually want to know what this site is all about. And whether it’s going to interest you. Well, my name is Jane, and The Compact Cook is my take on: travel; photography; blogging; health and wellbeing; decluttering; and yes, plenty of kitchen stuff too.

Everything I write about here is either stuff I find useful or things that really interest me, and I hope some of it will interest you too. I guess you could sum it all up as a ‘travel and lifestyle’ blog. But not the kind where I post endless pics of myself doing star jumps in designer gear on the top of mountains …. more tips and tricks I have picked up travelling several months of the year, plus the things I do to regroup when I am back home in Nottingham.

I spend several months of the year On The Road. Not exactly Kerouac-style; more Moho* than boho. But over the years I’ve learned a lot about planning an extended trip, keeping a travel journal, the best travel gear and gadgets. So as well as logging my trips here, I want to share what I’ve found out that works … plus mistakes and things you might want to avoid, especially if you are contemplating vanlife. My travel journals are currently a total mess, so watch this space as I look for ways of making them better and more accessible.
This goes hand in hand with travel. I am certainly no Annie Leibovitz. But like most travellers I take lots and lots of photos. I wish they were better, so I’m working hard on improving my holiday snaps. I’d like them to be something a bit more than that, and tell more of a story of where I’ve been. So all the tips I pick up, I’m going to share here along the way.

PLUS … and this is an even bigger problem … actually organising and keeping track of the thousands of photos you end up taking is a modern day problem that I am gradually getting better at. Photography used to be so expensive and so it was a much more contained hobby. In the digital age organising your photos is an issue that has to be solved if you want to make any sense of them when you look back.

With a background in Music Technology, Computer Science and eCommerce I have been making my living online one way or another for 20+ years. But the last 4 have been the best. Why? I have mastered the art of actually making a living through blogging, which makes me a kind of digital nomad. I get to travel lots and I’ve worked out to fund it through working wherever I am. So I’m going to document how you make an income from blogging here. Because so many people ask me how I do it!
Doesn’t everyone of a certain age start thinking about their health and wellbeing, and what they can do to arrest decline? One of the ‘problems’ of frequent travel is that it can be very easy to slope into an unhealthy lifestyle. Drinking too much. Eating the ‘wrong’ things to excess. Not exercising enough. You know, all the usual things you should and shouldn’t be doing! So without obsessing about it too much, I’m always looking for effortless ways to live a healthier lifestyle without going the whole 9 yards and becoming a buddhist nun! Nothing too extreme in other words …. but looking out for the latest thinking on how to live well.

But I’m not just going to talk about healthy lifestyles. When you spend weeks on the road in a motorhome, you quickly learn what you really need … and what you don’t. I absolutely love the freedom of living with very little. Less clutter means more time to be, think and do. Seriously. So when I come home I want to retain that feeling of living light. I am a bit of a minimalist. Living well with less means having good systems for budgeting, organising, cleaning. Useful life hacks. Then getting on with the things that are important. Simplify your life and live more.

So now I get to explain the Compact Cook bit! I started off thinking I had become such an expert at cooking in a small space that I should share what I know. Over the years we have honed the cooking gear in our motorhome so we can now cook just about anything … and all our equipment fits in a couple of drawers. And although at home I have a much bigger kitchen, with plenty of cupboards, I don’t want it cluttered with gadgets and stuff I don’t use. It’s that ‘living light’ thing that I was talking about before. So I’m going to share the things I love and actually use, day-in, day-out in both my kitchens – on the road and at home.

Thanks for dropping by. It’s great to meet you.

Jane x

*Moho -> Motorhome