My weekly round-up: Holiday Edition

My weekly round-up: Holiday Edition
Good morning Sunday. I am chilling on the sofa, catching up with Doctor Foster with a cup of tea and my little dog. It feels good to be home. Whilst missing the company of the girls and waking up to sunshine too much. My bowl of porridge didn’t feel as good as it did to sit down to our makeshift continental breakfast. (Token ham and cheese on the table but only consume bread, salted butter and Nutella). I have had the best five days in Vilamoura, a little Port town in Algarve, Portugal. I laughed until tears ran down my face, ate whatever I wanted, tried to tan but actually gave myself what still feels like third-degree burns. It was the break I needed. Home before last week felt stifling, I felt stuck, as though life was going around on a carousel repeating itself day in day out. It is amazing what a new place, sleep and a week with your friends can do. This is my weekly round-up holiday edition. 
Going up 
Finally having time to devour books –Sitting by the pool, or lying on the beach with a page turner that you can’t put down is one of the best feelings. 

Aqua Show Waterpark – On Thursday we booked to go to the water park 10 minutes down the road. It was the first water park I have been to since Oz and I forgot just how much I loved them. I haven’t laughed so much in so long/ realised what a wimp I had become. We spent the day there, alternating between watching Sarah go on all the rides Lucy and I wouldn’t. (One including a rickety old log flume) napping and racing on the most lethal race slides I’ve ever been on. I am sure I have lost a layer of skin off my back from said ride. 

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Beach naps – I am missing these too much. It showed how much we needed this holiday. The first day the three of us were together we made our way to the beach and all rather quickly fell asleep. We woke up, took a swim in the most brutal of waves, had some lunch and fell asleep again. I have never known us to nap so much and I really feel like after a while I have caught up with myself. 
 
Eating whatever I wanted – For holidays such as these we have always gone to Puerto Banus, I guess over ease and familiarity. I know the place like the back of my hand, so it became easy to just return but I was always so self-conscious of my appearance whilst I was there. I am not into the whole hair and makeup to go to a beach club. Or walk around in bikini and wedges, so whilst in Banus, I would always find myself avoiding carbs to make my stomach look flat. Often finding I was always worried about what I was eating. Which is not a holiday to me. This week we ate whatever we wanted when we wanted. We were not glutinous in any way but it was nice to eat what I wanted without worrying and to be honest, I noticed absolutely no difference in my appearance. (The burn was probably disguising it).
 
All the laughter – There has never been a truer word said than ‘laughter is the best medicine’ I cried with laughter at so many occasions. Over stories shared, or situations that happened. (Bikini tops flying off when applying suncream). Spending a week laughing really puts your mind back on track. 
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Catching up in every sense of the word – In all, the best thing about the week was just being able to properly catch up with the girls especially as Sarah lives all the way down in Cornwall and we don’t see her half as much as we want to. Catching up on sleep, reading, tanning. I feel so refreshed and ready to get on with the things at home. Buckle down at work and get back in the gym. 

 

Going down 

Sunburn – I like to tell people how well I tan but I don’t know if I just had a few lucky years in Spain. Because what I have come home with can only be described as a slight bit of colour and that colour is most definitely red. I spent so long sun creaming up. I even used factor 30 throughout the day. This is coming from a girl who historically would only buy Factor 8 tanning oil. After some rather painful days, my skin has slowly begun to ebb into an ok tan. Nothing compared to Sarah who started off with a nice Cornish tan and went home looking like she had spent Christmas surfing in Australia. Absolute tan goals. 

Holiday blues – Arriving home to an empty house with just Dougal for company, after 5 days of waking up with friends is the worst feeling. Knowing today is going to consist of home chores and preparing myself for my 6 day week up ahead is such a sinking feeling. I am one of those people who would live with all their friends if they could. Having cups of tea dripped fed to me all day and all the clothes to share. 

No more travel before Christmas – I was lucky to squeeze these five days away in considering I have a massive event going on next Saturday at work. Yet knowing this is the last time I will have people to go away with before Christmas is such a depressive feeling. I really wish I could be brave enough to do a bit of solo travelling but I am not sure if it is for me just yet.

Photographs – I am usually the photo taker of the group. Camera in one hand and phone in the other but that wasn’t the case this holiday. I sucked at it. I missed so many photo opportunities but I didn’t care it felt so good to just be there in the moment. Drink cocktails as soon as they were placed on the table and just live the holiday through my own eyes. That is not to say I didn’t take any photos of my food or didn’t boomerang any moments but it was nice to not worry. I was pleased with myself until I was on the plane home trying to flick through the memories of the last few days and had little apart from Icecreams and swimming pools to look at. 

So that was my five days away in Portugal, honestly, could not have asked for a better time. I feel so motivated and happy to get on with the week ahead. Prepare for Autumn, Winter and Christmas and see what the next few months bring.  

 

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