Weary

We have arrived!!  After 4 flights, totalling 24 hours, plus layovers totalling 11 hours, we are finally in New Zealand!  Just got to try and stay awake til bedtime now...

Holidays are coming...!

Well, holidays are coming a little earlier than usual this year!  X, Y and I are currently in a hotel at  Gatwick Airport as tomorrow we will be on a 3 week tour of New Zealand, to visit ATM for Christmas, and my other friend, Fran for New Year, followed by a few days in Sydney :-)  Best get some sleep before the epic journey commences....!

Hi De Hi

Well, holiday time has rolled round again, and this time we're off to good old Butlins, yay!  I'm looking forward to it, as we haven't been for a few years and this time X and I are taking Bridey and her two for the first time, as well as Disco and baby Abe.  She needs the break after the year she's had, so should be good.  If I manage to survive 5 solid days with 2 mates and 4 kids!!

Home again...

Hi honey, I'm home!!!   Ibiza was lovely!  We were thoroughly spoilt by going all inclusive, and were in a very nice hotel, which I pretty much didn't leave :-)  The sun shone and despite a few windy occasions, the bikini was used almost constantly!  Be a was mildly irritating, which to be honest I was kind of expecting, but it was definitely nice to be away.  Roll on next month's holiday :-)

Ibiza...

Off to Ibiza with X and Y, and Bea, bright and early in the morning!!  Bit of sunshine is just what I need at the moment, so fingers crossed the weather holds out and my intentions of laying on a sunlounger doing nothing but sunning, reading, eating and drinking cocktails come to fruition!

Joining the masses

It's official!  For the first time in my adult life, I am now officially unemployed!

Feels very odd and its only day 1!

Initial plans are to sleep for a week, lol - particularly as I've had a really nasty virus/chest infection since last weekend, and then to reflect, assess, and plan for the future!!

I'll be okay money wise for at least 6 months, if I'm slightly sensible (not a usual trait - eek!), so will see what new challenges life brings, and spend the next few months having a bit of me time, hitting the gym, and making my beautiful house even more beautiful!  Plus a bit of work in the garden. After all, you have to have a little bit of fun with a redundancy payment :-)

PS.  Reykjavik was FABULOUS!!  Go, immediately!!!

Away again...

Off to Reykjavic on Thursday!  Woop woop!
Happy Valentines Day to me :-)

Itchy feet!

I have come back from my recent travels, with nothing but further travels on my mind!!  Fortunately for me, in unfortunate times, my Mum has left a small inheritance which will be enough to clear my bills, freeing up a significant amount of monthly income, and have some left over for holidays!  So, holidays are being planned, and more than that, booked!

So far, I have booked...

- London with X for 2 nights in London Town, including a show, for my birthday at the beginning of December.

- Edinburgh with X and Y (unless he's got a bloody job by then!!), and my sister and bro-in-law for 4 nights over New Year, for Hogmanay celebrations.

- Iceland with my friend CJ for 3 nights in February, to see the Northern Lights (hopefully!).

- Good old Butlins in Skegness with X, along with friends Bridey and accompanying kids, and new mother Disco,with (by then) 6mth old Disco Junior, for the May bank holiday week.

- Back to Scotland again for the August bank holiday week, with X, and maybe Y.

Other plans for the year include something for the October half term (I was hoping for Orlando, but pennies may not stretch!), and hopefully, Lapland for Christmas!

Next year, I'm hoping to do a month long round the world (currently, London, Miami, LA, (maybe Vancouver), Auckland, Christchurch (to see the fabulous ATM - not that she knows it yet!), Singapore, Dubai, London) over the Christmas/New Year period.  Finances for that are yet to be sorted!   Plus, a week or two in the year just to keep the itch away.

Hopefully, that should keep me occupied for a bit :-)

Woop woop

Just realised that in 7 short weeks I shall be heading into Las Vegas, and in 8 weeks, into San Francisco! I am very excited!!!!!

I love a good wedding!

Well, sucker as I am for a good wedding, the royal one has been an excellent opportunity to revel in the romantic for a few hours, and revel I did.

We have been off visiting again, and have spent the last four days in Lincoln with my sister and hubby, and the entirety of Friday was taken up with the Royal Wedding (yip yip), which I had intended to watch only partly, but in reality the telly went on about 10am when we all got up and stayed on until about 2.30pm when it was all over!! We did then drag ourselves off the sofa to a nearby village for a quaint, quintessentially English village party - including the obligatory hog roast, wooden skittles and huge musical organ van. Fabulous darling!! The day was also made particularly thrilling by the fact that the aeroplanes that did the flyover at Buckingham Palace took off from the RAF airbase where my sister's hubby is based, and we saw them take off from literally just over the field from us! I was quite embarrasingly excited by that event I have to say!

Saturday saw me slightly less like an excited child as we headed off to Lincoln for the day, and we had a nice relaxing time looking around the Cathedral, combined with a bit of wandering the old Lincoln cobbled streets and requisite posh shops including the most cluttered antique shop I've ever seen, not to mention the most gorgeous handmade chocolates shop, before a visit to the more modern part of the city which resulted in the purchase of no less than 13 books in a wonderful (and very cheap) book shop, and the ending of the day in excited child status again!

The seaside beckoned on Sunday, and despite the very breezy (Skegness is so bracing) seafront I insisted on us all walking along the beach for a good way before the pier, the arcades and the candy floss stalls came calling! Fish and chips were eaten, rock was bought, 2pences were cashed in by the pocketful, and we finished the day with a walk back along the windy seafront once again.

So now, both long weekends are over and back to work and reality tomorrow, which is frankly rubbish!

Home again

Well, we have returned from our short sojourn to the wonderful Clacton on Sea, and I say that in a completely non-ironic way as it was actually really lovely.

We were staying on a holiday park not far away in St Osyth, and were expecting a caravan only to arrive and find we had been allocated a little detached bungalow/chalet! Not the most auspicious of properties, but certainly good enough for our little stay. Spent the first afternoon/evening wandering around the campsite, strolling along the seafront, nipping into the clubhouse, and generally getting our bearings, before a relatively early night after the days travelling.

Saturday dawned bright and beautiful so we decided to bite the bullet and head for Clacton itself, which was a great call. The beach is great and the pier is huge, and the actual seafront is really pretty, it was much better than I expected and nicer than many typical seaside towns. We spent a great day there, with gorgeous sunshine on the beach and then a fabulous time in the funfair part, with X getting her groove on the trampoline thingies and the mini water Zorbs. Watching Bridey on the jungle top type climb thingy will probably go down in history as one of my funniest times, although possibly one of her traumatic times! The evening was topped off with a night in the clubhouse playing bingo (we didn't win!) and watching the cheesy entertainment whilst I introduced Bridey to the delights of Cherry Lambrini! A slightly drunken couple of mum's, and 3 sober kids headed to bed late, after a good time by all!

Sunday brought with it a little more cloud so we headed to the inside swimming pool for the morning, which was good, although slightly disappointingly the log flume wasn't in action, and after deciding not to shower before swimming I then forgot the shampoo/conditioner/shower gel needed to shower after! However, the sun started to come out as we were leaving, so after a quick shower back at the pad it was time to hit the outdoor play area and the sunshine, and a few hours later the kids (the bigger two anyway) were back in the swimming pool, although this time the outdoor one! Yes, in England, in April!!! Another relatively quiet evening, after an hour of discoing in the clubhouse, as we were visiting Colchester Zoo the next day before the long drive home.

So off we set on Monday, getting to the Zoo just as the weather picked up, and had a fabulous time there. The zoo is absolutely gorgeous, and both of us felt it was probably the best one we'd been to. The animals all had great pens and enclosures, lots of which you could actually walk through and if the animals were close they were close! It really felt very interactive, and despite being really busy was clean both in the enclosures and out. I would definitely recommend it for anybody who is going to be in that part of the world! We stayed until about 5pm before setting off for home (via McDonalds) and enjoyed every minute of it.

All I need to do now is pick up the bags from where we dropped them when we came in, empty them, get a long bath and an early night before work again tomorrow...!

Seaside

Pray for good weather this weekend folks! X and I are off to a cheap deal caravan by the seaside near Clacton on Sea tomorrow, along with Bridey and her two in tow! I'm looking forward to it, although I'm a little concerned about having to share a caravan with a 15mth old for four days! I feel ear plugs to prevent the early mornings may be in order!

It will be nice to get away though, even if the weather doesn't favour us (although please don't let it rain all weekend!), as long as it's nice enough to get on the beach for a few hours a day, to eat chips on the pier, and to get some fresh sea air in our lungs that will be just fine with me!

Holidays are coming

I have discovered the wonders of the £10pppn holiday special offer! That, combined with some "spare" money from my car loan (which should have gone towards paying off a different loan, but hey ho, you only live once!), and no real holiday for far too long, has resulted in the need to book holidays this year.

To date, I have booked the following:

A long weekend in Clacton On Sea in April, with Bridey and her two.

Two weeks in the South of France in August, with Lily and family.

A short week in Walton on the Naze, in October half term.

Alongside that, Jamie is currently on the hunt for a cheap, cheap girly break for my 40th birthday (as NZ is not going to be an option this year!)

Yip yip for holidays this year!

Though if only my bestie from across the miles lived in Clacton, not New Zealand! Here's hoping for 2013 though...!