When we first went into lockdown a year ago, I don't think any of us could have predicted the 12 months that have followed. People have lost jobs, and many others have lost lives. I count myself fortunate to be in neither of those categories, but I wanted to share a visual account of my lockdown, if for nothing else, to remind myself years from now how things can change in an instant.

​Before I begin, if you want to read my thoughts on the coronavirus from a year ago you can do so here, but just remember things have changed a lot since then. If you want to read my review of the year 2020, you can do that here.

The pandemic has allowed me to explore places closer to home. It's easy to forget that I live in a city that ranks the second most popular in the world for international visitors and so I've spent this spring and summer walking around and exploring new parts of the city.

From my travels around the world, I've realised that London is a relatively 'green' city and that's largely thanks to the eight Royal Parks of London, as well as some of the non-royal ones (a Royal Park is one originally owned by the monarchy and is now preserved as an open access public park). In this article I review each park in order of size, from smallest to largest - with a ranking of my favourites at the end.

When I make a list of my favourite cities in the world, you can bet that Edinburgh will feature somewhere on it. An often overlooked destination in the UK, Edinburgh has history, culture, creative energy and it's the perfect size to explore in a short amount of time. Perhaps best of all, it's one of the most beautiful cities that I have had the privilege of visiting, thanks to its almost uniform Georgian architecture. You can read detailed notes about my visit to the Scottish capital here, but here are the 5 things I most loved about Edinburgh.