I am a pianist, chef and writer, and would be hard pushed to say which I like the most. I've always enjoyed being dynamic and letting all my passions play. For this reason having this blog is a boon.

 

It will be a respository for my regular writing, which is very close to my heart, and the fact that this is public means that it can find its readership over time, and attract a community to come together around it.

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Early beginnings

The first 14 years of my career were spent working as a professional writer, starting on a daily newspaper and then transitioning into business journalism and corporate communications.

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Professional maturity

Over time I evolved into the role of a Strategic Consultant working in Change Management and completed contracts with leading bluechips around the world in aviation, banking, high-tech IT and pharmaceuticals. My last major commission was the pre-merger work for GlaxoWellcomeSmithKlein.

 

After this, I completed 1.5 years of training to work as a coach, and have been a Business & Transformation Coach ever since. Being trusted to help someone transform their business or Self is one of the greatest privileges I've ever known.

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My qualifications

I have completed courses with some of the world's leading lights in the field of transformation in order to build my knowledge and skills. My teachers and mentors have included Ian McDermott, Richard Bandler, Robert Dilts, Tad James, Susie Smith, Mark McKergow, Paul Scheele, Allan Sweeney, among many others.

 

I am a Master Coach, Hypnotherapist (Ericksonian), a 5th Degree Reiki Master and a Superlearning Coach. I've been practicising Transcendental Meditation for 30 years and have learned other forms of meditation during that time.

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My interests

I believe devoutly in modellng and that you should walk your talk. Accordingly there isn't a tool in my portfolio that I have not applied to myself first, before gifting it to clients.

 

At this time I am studying how to control and eliminate pain mentally, neural aspects of sabotage, and addictions as an expression of the need for transcendence. I regard myself as being in a state of continual learning - finding out more about what I don't know. Every discovery is like a new planet to me.

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A renaissance

In 2012 my husband and I decided to do the travelling that we had not done in the earlier part of our marriage, so we rented out our house and moved to Thailand, where we stayed for four years. This 'sabbatical' became a pivotal moment in our lives: we both experienced a complete renaissance in our thinking by virtue of the fascinating people we met there.

 

Accordingly we returned with an entirely different plan for our future. We wanted to be mortgage-free, more resilient, creative, and to build something holistic that would support people in their desired healing.

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A wok and a monk

In our final year in Thailand I completed formal training as a Thai chef. The tutors taught us 220 dishes, food history, fruit carving and Royal Thai cuisine, and it simply blew my mind. We started with around 14 people on the course, but most of them left after the beginners' portion and more after the Intermediate segment. In the end there were just two of us left, doing the advamced part of the course, so it had a much more intimate, Zen feel to it.

 

When my tutors realised my serious interest in food history and small touches that have the power to completely change a dish, they started to reveal their secrets to me, sometimes waiting until others had left the room and then speaking in whispers. I treasured those moments. After graduating I returned with the title of Grand Master Professional Thai Chef – but most importantly, with a completely changed outlook about food.

 

But our sojourn in Thaland wasn't just a pivotal moment in my life from a gastric perspective – the changes it brought with it reached into others areas too. For some time I had felt that I was, at heart, a Buddhist, and so it was that I went in search of perspectives on my most deeply held beliefs on life and answers to quesions I had about aspects of our intended future.
 

Before leaving Thaland I went to see a monk in a monastery in Chiang Mai in the north of the country. For several hours we sat in the dappled sunlight of the temple having an intensive conversation about Buddhism, forgiveness, and many other things, while one of his studenst listened in, eager to learn. I felt this conversation was being etched in my heart.

 

A re-occurring dream

For some years a dream had repeatedly rolled into my mind, in which I set up a retreat centre full of magical spaces. The images of it were so startling and full of starshine that it would not let me go, re-appearing at intervals in my dreams, each time more vibrant and real than the last.

 

I knew this was important, but at the time it didn't seem to fit with anything I wanted to do. I was excited by it each time that it appeared, but also struggled to accept it as my future. It seemed to be so much bigger than anything else I had ever done and as a coach, I have always been wary of overwhelm as the harbinger of paralysis and inertia – something to be avoided at all costs.

 

As a coach I know all about planning, but this lay so far outside my field of life experience, that I felt completely unhatched regarding it and this was very uncomfortable for me. Clearly I needed to do some modelling before making a decision – and if it was going to become a reality, break it down into segments. Nevertheless, at this stage I hadn't even shared the idea of a retreat centre with my husband.

 

In which I get my answers

The monk listened quietly, and then, in just a few simple words, gifted me the three principles which monks follow when they go into new territory and set up a centre. Immediately the fog vanished, and I felt as if I was standing on solid ground. I went away feeling clear-headed about the steps I had to take.

 

My mind had been buzzing with questions. We do not wish the centre to be focussed on religion particularly. Should it have a temple? Would this put people off? Would they still come without one - and would they still feel it could be their home - for a while? " The monk smiled. "Find the place first, and some support," he said, his voice reverberating around the room. "Then people will come."

 

I still asked him if I should read more books about Buddhism in order to be a better Buddhist. He responded "I will answer this, but later on...I need to hear you speak some more first – and get to know you better'.

 

We talked about forgiveness for some time and he explained the Buddhist perspective on this: "You can apologise, but it will not help you. Once someone takes action, that act becomes manifest in the universe. It cannot be undone. People will be dealing with it for the rest of their lives, whether it was a good thing or not. This is our human accountability... and it you have been wronged, you must let go of the need for apologies because it comes from an attachment to suffering." I sat quietly, thinking about my family, realising I was going to have to let them go. 

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With his words ringing in my ears: "no, don't read any more books about Buddhism...", and "God is where you are, Ingrid." I left the temple, feeling as if I had slipped through a membrane somewhere and stepped into intense white light. Truly my heart started singing that day and it hasn't stopped since.

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Starting to fly

Afterwards I met Mark and we took a taxi up the mountain towards Doi Sutep, stopping halfway up to visit a little-known temple there, which was completely free of any tourists – except for us – and mercifully peaceful. Such beauty and sanctuary is rare these days. Mark didn't press me for information, fortunately.

 

I was deeply pensive. I wandered around the grounds, taking it all in. Then I sat on a rock, in the middle of the waterfall there, looking out over the great plains of Chiang Mai, and felt an immense peace coming over me. A giant portal had just opened up and was allowing me to glimpse a new landscape. I realised that I had to walk into it – and, more importantly, that I wasn't unhatched at all. I felt completey secure and knew I could do this - not only what I had to do, but how.

 

Over the last months of our stay in Thailand, my dreams became ever more colourful. In them my journeying changed from falling fearfully through dark, silent voids, to flying through paradisical spaces, in which I was laughing all the while. When I woke up in the morning my husband told me that I had been laughing in my sleep.

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Integration

Over time I started to share this dream with Mark, little by little, a man who does not like change, and over time he came on board. I explained to him how we could integrate all our skills into one cohesive whole. The culinary qualification gives me a certain cachet because most western chefs who train in Thailand don't do it to that degree of intensity or for that length of time – and that will help us to stand out.

 

Moreover our culinary, artistic and spiritual interests will attract clients of their own accord because this is what the world needs. As for finding the place, I had painted its image into my heart, so all we had to do was find a place that matched it. Since becoming its new owners, our partnership has intensified and become stronger through our sense of shared commitment.

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The adventure begins

After our return we took some time to formulate plans. I had spent our last six months in Thailand looking at 17 countries as possible retreat destinations and settled on Ecuador, Bulgaria, Spain and France. We narrowed them down to France, and visited several times to choose an area to live in, after which we hired an immigration expert to help us, and then started the paperwork.

 

We managed to create our paper trail for emigration three days before Brexit would have cut us off and made it much harder. And so it was that 2020/2021 became a monumental year for us: we renovated our house in the UK and sold it in July, then in December, in the middle of Covid, we moved to France, and in Summer 2021 bought our mini-estate: 3.5 acres of prairie, with four buildings on it.

 

Paradise found

I now write this in the glorious kitchen of our new home, which we both adore. If I turn my head to the left I can see our christmassy lemon tree, which we brought inside for the Winter and beyond it, through the window, I can glimpse the countenances of the medieval houses opposite with their mullioned windows winking at us just above the wrought iron tracery of our front gates. After turning our hand to renovating two of our properties - the medieval lodge (see www.lindenlodgestays.com) and our own cottage – we shall, in 2024, be turning our attention to the manor house itself as our intended retreat centre for war veterans, and anyone who wants to heal or just refresh their energy.

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Abundance for everyone

Plans include our own vegetable garden built on permaculture principles, a pond with a jetty for nature watching, a natural swimming pool, aswell as meditation spaces and writing huts dotted around the landscape. Activities will include gardening, renovating the property, and cooking together, and they may include hosting weeks for artisitic and cultural topics, if we pass muster with the French authorities.

 

People shall be able to choose their activities according to what they want to achieve: they can join a course, have some one-on-one time with me, or come on volunteer weeks where, in exchange for bed and board, they will get to work on the property, till the land with us, join in our renovations projects, and get back in touch with Self, perhaps as they have not done for years. There is something wonderful about gathering in our kitchen at 3pm for a pot of tea and traybakes, after a spell in the sun, picking grapes and walnuts and later in the evening sitting under the trees or by the fire after supper. You sleep like a baby and have the best of dreams.

 

In the fullness of time we shall be posting entries about our property renovations and development on our website www.lindenlodgestays.com/blog, you will find accounts of various projects as they emerge. To start you can read all about the property as it is now by selecting the blog entry We Found It. It contains plans from the previous owners as well as pictures of the inside of the main manor house, currently derelict and which we shall be starting to renovate in 2026. In the meantime and up to now our focus has been to renovate Linden Lodge which we now rent out, and to renovate the cottage, where we live, and which we shall start in the Summer of 2025. Feel free to connect with us on

www.yourculinarygenie.com/contact, or by emailing us directly here. On the blogs of each site, you can also sign up to get notice of new entries directly into your inbox.​

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Private passions

Mark and I have been married for 35 eventful years. We are both trained musicians, and share a love of music, art, films, books, dining with our new neighbours, and the outdoors - hiking and gardening. We love animals too, especially shaggy dogs and horses, and hope to get a new Bernese or Bobtail in the near future.

 

Mark loves gardening, table tennis, running, reading and opera. My particular loves are swimming in cold water, watching old movies by the fire while doing my nails and drinking liqueurs, and cookery, of course.

 

My dream is to make myself my own Parisian wardrobe and I have learned pattern-cutting to enable myself to do this. In June 2022 I bought an overlocker, which I plan to use during the Winter for making a morning robe, a Winter coat and some dresses for next Summer. As I always say to my clients, it's not a question of 'if', but when...!

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We welcome anyone who wishes to support us in our plans. If you wish to enquire about any aspect of the centre, volunteer with us, work with me as a writer and recipe developer, or even just share ideas, email us. We will be delighted to hear from you and will respond within 48 hours