I'm Lesley, a freelance travel & leisure journalist. Until recently I was based in stunning South Africa,  but after a major rethink about the future prompted by the Covid lockdown, I've reinvented myself as an English teacher for adults and moved to Santiago in Chile! I'm absolutely loving it, so you can expect some Chilean travel articles soon!
Here you'll also find some of my quirky, warped and opinionated ideas on life, love, cheesecake and everything else crucial for survival. If you want to follow me on Twitter or Instagram I'm on @lesley_stones
Have fun, and travel safely.

Cine Shorts

Elvis: A huge carnival of a movie by director Baz Luhrmann, starring Austin Butler and Tom Hanks as his creepily awful manager. It's lavish, spectacular, beautifully filmed and produced, and ultimately a sad story of exploitation.  ****

TopGun Maverick: A very entertaining romp through the skies with Tom Cruise back in the pilot's seat. Beautifully filmed, plenty of tension and scatterings of humour make it very watchable. Yep, there's an awful lot of testosterone-fuelled American egos, but you knew that already ****

Downton Abbey - A new era: A trip back to the original generation - far more interesting than the younger crew - with fabulous performances, beautiful scenery and various emotional story lines. It's funny and poignant too. A really superb package.  *****

Everything Everywhere All At Once: A completely over the top mish-mash of genres, leaning towards sci-fan kung fu action family drama. Mad, a little overlong, but funny and fascinating. And the costumes are incredible. Go prepared to laugh and not ask questions about plots or plausibility ****