Recently-retired agent Cathie O’Dea is writing a book about her travel memories, called A Path Well Travelled.
Based in Notting Hill, London, she left her role as a Travel Counsellor in September and is now busy with a handicraft venture called The Baubleist, making and selling personalised baubles and other gifts.
She decided to retire after a couple of difficult years, with Brexit uncertainty, the Super Break collapse and Covid-19.
More: Your Stories: Retired agent Cathie O’Dea looks back at 48 years in travel
Her first job was in 1972, working for Kenning Travel, and she also worked at Pickfords, American Express and British Airways before a career break to have her two daughters.
She then worked for Thomas Cook for 21 years before moving to Travel Counsellors for 14 years.
“I have made lots of friends and although my travel career has ended, my memories haven’t, so I want to share them,” she said.
“My job, my hobby and my social life were inseparable but Covid changed all that.”
She plans to self-publish the book by next summer and has joined a support group of fellow writers from one of her business network groups.
Over the years, she has travelled widely and won competitions to see destinations that she could never have otherwise visited, in the Caribbean, Australia, India, US, Far East and Indian Ocean.
A trip to Lanzarote was cancelled in November because of lockdown but she still hopes to get to the Canaries for some wintersun and travel to Amsterdam to see her daughter.
More: Your Stories: Retired agent Cathie O’Dea looks back at 48 years in travel