Showing posts with label Holiday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holiday. Show all posts
Since the year 2010 i have spent my Christmas eves, boxing days and new years working in a shop and wishing i was like my family who spent all those days together. Having Christmas day and new years day as one of your two days off a week really kills your Christmas spirit. I've tried to not let it get me too down over the last 7 years and to be completely honest, after so many years it was all i knew.
Now after 7 long years i am finally out of retail and have a traditional break, i couldn't be more excited! My office are breaking up on the 21st of December and are not reopening till the 2nd of January, this is completely strange to me so it will be a shock to the system. I might not know what to do with my 11 days off. I am making the most of my weekends this month and attending the early Christmas markets, they are the best things ever! All the cute shops, great food and Christmas music.
Here is a little itinerary of my next two months with a few events I've already gone to from the start of the month.
#3rd November
Bonfire Night at Wickstead Park
#10th November
Northampton Winter Food Festival
#17th November
Higham Ferrers Christmas Sparkle
#24th November
Towcester Christmas Fayre
#1st December
Birmingham Christmas Market
#20th December
Work Christmas party at Barton Seagrave Hall
#Christmas Eve
Spending the day round my parents making sure we have everything ready for Christmas day
#Christmas Day
Christmas at the brother in laws house with all the family and a sleepover
#Boxing Day
Scanning the internet for some boxing day deals in my pj's eating the left over food
If i can bring myself to actually step foot in a shop after Christmas you may see me having a look in the sale sections. I have decided if i actually want to be on the other end this year, i know how crazy shoppers can be at Christmas.
Back in May I wrote a list of objectives I wanted to achieved over the summer, a little summer to do list and I thought It would be a good idea to look back over the list and see if I actually achieved anything because yes, I'm sorry to say... Summer is over in my eyes. Bring on the blankets, fairy lights and hot chocolates.
#Get a new job
The most important goal of the summer was to get a new job and thankfully I have achieved that. If you haven't read a few of my more personal posts lately you might be questioning this goal but I don't want to bore you with the topic anymore so head over to a previous post to find out all the details. Anywho I am now in a new job, with amazing work friends and a much better work life balance. I really couldn't have found a better place to work at and I am so thankful it all worked out in the end.
#Become more fit
This was always going to be the up in the air idea, would I start working out or would I forget or just not be bothered. Annoyingly right now I am not signed to any gym BUT i do have plans to join one with Callum in October so watch this space!
#Grow my hair
I am proud to say I haven't caved and chopped all my hair off yet, I have even had a trimmed and the dip dye taken higher to balance out the length of my hair. I have even invested in a hair oil so hopefully that will encourage my hair to grow even faster. I am aiming to have my long bum touching hair by the start of next year so wish me luck!
#Finish off the bedrooms
Even though no physical progress has been made in the bedrooms, we do have plans in place. A colleague at work has agreed to make and fit my wardrobes since he is a carpenter which is amazing. Having someone I already know come over to make my wardrobes takes a load off my mind and makes me excited about the process. Once they are in my blogging/beauty room can really take shape. I have already made plans of how I want my space to look so I will definitely make a post about it when it happens.
#Fill up my cooking book with recipes
Do you know where the best place is to get dinner recipes? Pinterest of all places. There is a whole community of food lovers on it who share all their favourite recipes and I get most of my dinner ideas from there. My book is filling up but I definitely have room for more!
#Get the garden started
This ambition was a bit ambitious for myself really... I bought some lovely plants and painted my garden table and chairs to make the place feel homely and then all my plants died in the crazy heatwave we had. I have since replaced the plants and so far they are still alive, just. My plan is to spend more time in the garden now it is cooling down so hopefully by next summer the garden will look like a jungle.
#Visit another country
It's been a long time coming but I am finally going on holiday! After the year I have had this holiday can't come quick enough. Cal and I are going to Majorca at the end of the month and I can't wait to spend a whole week sitting by the pool reading hundreds of books and exploring the island. Hopefully being on holiday will spark some new ideas since there is nothing better than letting your mind run wild with no distractions.
What have you done this summer?
This summer I am planning on overhauling my life and basically sorting my shit out. This year has taken me on a roller coaster and it is only the fourth month in so I am expecting big changes this summer and I will make them happen.
# Get a new job
My work life has changed dramatically this year as you all know now and not for the good so my main aim this summer is to get a new job. As much as I love retail I really do think I need a change of environment and surroundings. Something closer to home with less stress would be the ideal situations so fingers cross something that ticks them boxes comes up.
# Become more fit
I don't really care about losing weight and going on a diet, my plan is to tone my body and become more fit in general. Although since moving out my eating has become so much better and I am learning to cook something new everyday, I still have weeks where my eating is terrible especially if I am working long hours. I am planning to join the local gym with Cal in the next month or so which will be really good for me, I used to go gym nearly every day when I first left school as a hobby so I can see myself getting really into it again.
# Grow my hair
I have had short hair since 2015 now and I think it is about time I went the other direction and grew my hair (if I can) I have been trying to grow my hair since I was 16 and it would never grow past my boobs so I ended up giving up and going for the chop. Now I am ready to try again and hopefully grow my hair long and put more bleach in the ends so my dip dye starts higher in my hair. This is how I hope to have my hair soon...
# Finish off the bedrooms
We are nearing a year in our house now and we still haven't finished everything we would like to because we aren't made of money and life gets in the way. We still need to get built in wardrobes in the master bedroom and once that is done we can get rid of all the rails of clothes in my little room and turn it into my blogging/beauty room. Once that is complete I think my blogging game will become stronger and more routined.
# Fill up my cooking book with recipes
Like I said my cooking skills are getting better with every Mary Berry cookbook I read (she is my gal) and everything that I really like to make I write up in my own little cooking diary. It has four different colours on the pages so I can separate my cooking lists, slow cooker recipes, recipes for dinner and baking recipes. I love filling in this book (because I have no life apparently) and get wait for it to be full.
# Get the garden started
My garden is a blank space at the minute and I really want to make the space into something beautiful and relaxing so in the summer I can sit in my quite place and read a book or do some gardening. I plan to dig out all the plants in my front garden and start from scratch and decide what me and cal want to have.
# Visit another country
Lastly I really want to go on a holiday aboard this year and get out of England. I have some ideas in the pipe line with my family to have a big group holiday but if that doesn't work out, Cal and I will definitely go somewhere by ourselves. Maybe a weekend in a city or a week by a pool in a cheap hotel in Spain. My ideal holiday would be Benidorm but no one shares my love of it :(
I love a good pair of Primark shoes and when I went into their Northampton store this week they didn't disappoint me! My main reason I went in their (apart from to spend all my wages) was to find some nice shoes to take on holiday with me. Although I tend to keep shoes for a few years and love bringing out an old pair to wear, I hadn't bought any sandals in ages so decided I needed a new pair for holiday.
I ended up leaving with three which is pretty good for me considering these were the only three things I bought.
My first pair are my new bargain babies! I found these as I was leaving the show department and fell in love with them. When I picked them up I realized they were my size and were only £6, it was fate. They are so comfortable to walk in and more importantly they are soooooo pretty! These will be the heels I take with me on holiday to wear most nights because they will go with every single one of my outfits.
I also picked up these black and brown flat sandals which are so comfortable to walk in, I feel like I'm not wearing anything. These were only £8 each which is really good and me being me, I picked up both colours so that they went with all my outfits.
I think I'm sorted for shoes for my holiday now so if i see myself walking into a shoe department before then, I need to turn back around and removed myself from the pretty shoes before my bank balance gets abused.
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Now the most important thing to take on holiday with you is a good sun lotion. The main reason is to protect your skin from the sun which is super important as you don't want to have skin problems when your older but it also helps you gain a nice even tan on holiday. I am not a big sun worshiper (my moto is fake not bake) but on holiday I tend to sit around the pool or beach and don't shy away from the sun, as much as usual anyway. I usually lather myself in Pizbuin on a factor 20-30 and continuously cover myself in it all during the day, this lotion protects my skin from the sun but it also help to enhance your tan and make you darker which I am a fan of.
On the topic of protection my next must have is a good pair of sunglasses. I always tend to take more than one pair but that is because I am a very clumsy person and accidents happen around me, but for any normal person one pair is enough. They need to be a pair which will go with any outfit and won't look dirty once you've wore them to the beach one day.
My next holiday essential is a good flattering bikini. I am lucky to still have the same bikinis I bought donkeys years ago which still fit me, still flatter my body and still look brand new (thank you Matalan). I have a selection of boob tubes with removable straps that are good for lazying around and catching a tan, and also some nicer bikinis which enhance my insect bites and have this very 60s style straps, which will come in useful when I travel to the water park and don't want to flash to the whole site.
While your at the pool or the beach you are gonna need a very important item in my opinion, a pretty kimono which goes with all your bikinis. I have a record number of kimonos that I purchased during the summer of last year so I think trying to choose which one I take on holiday this year is going to be tricky. They are so easy to wear and are so flattering to throw on over your bikini to walk around the hotel, if you are not comfortable walking around in just a bikini (I know I'm not). As long as they have the same colours in as your bikinis then go crazy, clash a little. The bigger the patterns the more flattering the kimono is i think!
Lastly, to make you prepared for any occasion that comes your way on the holiday you need two pairs of shoes. A casual flat sandal that is comfortable to wear all day and a wedge that goes with all your evening outfits. It would be nice to bring your shoe collection with you on holiday but its just not realistic so us girls have to compromise. The good news for us is that most retailer makes so many different types of shoes, its easy to find pairs that can be worn multiply times with different outfits. I think you can't go wrong with a brown wedge because they go with absolutely everything and brown is a more summer colour than black.
Writing this post has got me so excited for my holiday but I still have to wait 11 weeks which is going to kill me! Tell me about any holidays that any of you have been on already and make me jealous!
We've all been there where we've had a rough tough day that gets us down and ruins our mood, I personally like to cuddle under the covers with some pizza and a nice warm Callum. On them days where I can't nick him for cuddles, I like to snuggle in bed with a good chick flick to help my mood. I have become obsessed with really girlie cheesey films lately (this might be my emotions telling me something) and I thought I would write a post on my favourite 'pick me up' films.
Bridget Jones's Diary
Every women who was born in the 90s loves Bridget Jones and I'm sure most of these women will have made their daughters watch her too, I sure will be! I think her films are brilliant and no matter what is getting me down, these films always find a way to pick me up (probably because my life isn't usually as tragic as hers, but she does get to kiss Collin Firth and Huge Grant so who really is winning at life?). Bridget is a singleton living in London who is trying to find love in this big wide world and in her big huge control pants. She is hilarious and always makes me smile, plus her friends are even more hilarious!
Walking On Sunshine
This film I will admit I am a little embarrass to claim I love but... I absolutely love love love it! It is ridiculously cheesey and full of 80s songs but I can't help reaching for it when I am in the mood to be cheered up. The lead male Giulio Berruti is a beautiful creature who I have fallen in love with (sorry Cal) and it also has Leona Lewis in who I have loved ever since she was on The X Factor. This plot is the ordinary - boy meets girl on holiday and fall in love, girl leaves boy to fly home and start uni, boy then gets engaged to girls sister 3 years later. How gutted would you be!
About Time
This photo sums up this film perfectly with one word - cute. I love Rachel McAdams in every film she is in and I love her in a whole nother way after this film. The plot is about Tim who is a time traveler and the journey of his 'extra ordinary' life and his meetings with Mary. I love watching this film because firstly like i said, it is super cute and secondly it is relate-able and down to earth, obviously not the time traveling bit but the love story and journey from young adult to actual grown up.
The Holiday
This film is years old now and It still makes me so happy when I watch it. Even though it technically is a Christmas film, it never stays away during the rest of the year! Jude Law is a very handsome English gentleman in the film which I am all over and he has two little girls who are just how I want my kids to be. I love all four of the main actors in this film and found Jack Black such a cutie after watching it. It follows two women who swap houses over Christmas time to get away from their ex partners and surprise surprise they find love in the other women's house, standard love story really but I still love it!
Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging
This is my favourite guilty pleasure film which makes me feel 15 again. Firstly, and most importantly, Aaron Johnson is a beautiful young man and I fancied him for a few years after watching him in this film. Georgia is a girl whos main mission in life is to make Robbie notice her as well as not turn into a lone like the rest of her family, as she calls them. This film is hilarious and has me covering my face half the time at the immaturity.
If you have any good recommendations of super girlie chick flicks, leave them in a comment below!
The first item I was hunting round Barcelona for all weekend, I tried duty free at Luton and had no luck, I then went in every Sephora shop and still couldn't find it anywhere. It is the Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturising Cream, which I wanted in the lotion form but it just wasn't anywhere in Spain apparently so I opted for the cream over the gel. It was on offer as well at 25 euros so bonus. I love the packaging of Clinique and previously has a smaller version of the lotion, so I'm sure I'll love the cream too and write a post after I've fallen in love with it.
Next is a Lush product which I wasn't expecting to pick up in Spain. Call me naïve but I didn't know Lush was that big outside of the UK so this was a nice surprise to find. Although there are hundreds of Lush shops in England and I have one quite close to me, I still picked up this Lush Hottie Massage Bar as standing on the Metro how ever many times a day and walking miles were killing our backs and shoulders. We didn't use it over there in the end so I have it home now for next time our back decides to play up.
Next is another product I can easily get in the UK but it was only 12 euros over there when it is usually £12 in England and I have wanted to try this BB cream for a long while now so put it in my basket. It is the Body Shop All In One BB Cream in 01 which adapts to your natural skin tone. I have mixed feeling about this product right now, it is not at all what I expected and I definitely think I need to use it more to decide whether I like it or not.
Lastly, probably my favourite pick up is the Bourjois 123 Perfect CC Cream. Now yes I know this is everywhere in Boots... but they never have any light shades! I go in every Boots near me and its 'warm beige, cool beige, light beige, rose beige' maybe some people don't have beige skin?! Maybe some people have lighter skin... Anyway I picked up the Ivory shade and I have wore this everyday since coming back and I am in love. I am picking this over all my foundations at the moment and still getting the same coverage. I will do a detailed post for you guys as I cant rave about this product enough!
And those were the few bits that I picked up while away, most of our money was spent on presents and paying to get in places and see things. Hope you enjoyed guys :)
Hello lovelies! A few exciting things have happened over this bank holiday and I thought I would write a post for you telling you all about it, its not really a surprise because it is in the title but ... It was my birthday on Thursday!! I am officially 21 so I guess I should book a ticket to America to go buy some alcohol, you know just because I can.
On the Tuesday night me, my family and my boyfriend went out for a meal to celebrate my birthday, we had the meal two days before my birthday because for the last few months Cal had been planning a surprise for my birthday with my family and he wanted to tell me at my birthday dinner, I knew he was taking me away some where so I wanted enough time to get prepared and pack so I planned the meal a few days before we left. To be perfectly honest I thought he was taking me to somewhere in England, my first thought was Cambridge because he knows how much I enjoy it there. He was a little cutie and made a moon pig card with lots of hints to where I was going (even though I didn't get any of them and thought it was Newcastle...) and it turned out that he was taking me to Barcelona!
I am not ashamed to admit that after 5 minutes of 'really? are you kidding? are we really really?' that when It sunk in we were going there I cried, much to Cal's shock. Then another thought hit me, what am I going to take to Barcelona?! That will come in another post don't you worry.
We travelled there for what equalled to 3 days (one morning and evening and two full days) and now that we are back I plan on resting in bed until I am back at work Wednesday. There is so much to do there I was knackered by the last day! We stayed in this holiday in a really quite area in the Inner City called Tryp Condal Mar which was so lovely. Silly me was too busy exploring to remember to take photos of the hotel or even our rooms but trust me it was amazing.
The hotel was a 10 minute walk from a big shopping centre called Diagonal Mar (which we took full advantage of) and the metro. Every day we left the hotel around 9 and went to the metro to travel to our first stop. We got a 3 day travel card which was 20.50 euros each which is really good. With only a Barcelona map and a tube guide we travelled everywhere!
Since Cal had planned and paid for this whole trip we definitely had to visit the FCBarcelona Stadium for him which he loved. Even I enjoy walking round the stadium, and sitting on the balconies and walking by the Pitch. Cal also got a photo with a picture of Messi so he was extra happy.
We went to see the Cathedral and two of Gaudi's houses which are so cool. The only annoying thing we found with these places is that the queues to go in them are ridiculous! We weren't prepared to waste our days in queues to see one thing, we were happy seeing the outside and then moving on to another place. Sagrada Familia is definitely worth a visit, the building is amazing and it is right in front of your face when you walk out of the metro.
We went to two museums while we were there, Museu d'art Contemporani de Barcelona and Museu nacional d'art de Catalunge, and although the buildings where amazing to look at, the art didn't really appeal to us. At both museums though there was other great things to do, at the contemporary museum there were stalls outside selling clothing and jewellery and lovely little things for presents and at the national museum there was a huge shopping centre Arenas de Barcelona which had loads more shops.
We also visited the Zoo which was a lovely trip and we got a few photos there (well Cal did because I was too lazy to take photos all holiday) but as you can see from the photos, most of the animals were sleeping which was annoying! I guess the heat was too much for them which I can understand.
One morning and one evening we took a stroll down to the beach which was lovely, it was really quite and peaceful and the only people we saw was runner after runner first thing in the morning. I can imagine it being packed during the summer and I would like to go back to sit on that beach in the sun, but then again there is too much there to just sit around for hours.
The place we probably visited most and spent the most time in was a stop on the metro called Jaume. It had everything we needed there, the cathedral, street after street of shops (mostly Mango, it was ridiculous how many Mango stores we walked past on the same street!), the market. I did find a Body shop and a Sephora there which made me extra happy and I will do a post on the few bits I bought.
On our last night after dinner in our favourite restaurant in the Diagonal Mar centre ( the best steak house ever) we went to the arcade to get rid of a few of our last change and ended up finding a bowling alley at the back. We played a game to end the night (which I lost badly) and then went to leave to go back to the hotel when Cal stopped to play on a grab machine (you know the ones that you use the grip to pick up a cuddly toy and it always lets go after a second), he used a few euros and didn't win anything. Then we went to leave again and he spotted a minion one and wanted to have one last go, so I found a euro at the bottom of my purse and... he won me a minion! It was the best way to end the holiday as he has a thing of buying me cuddly toys. Even before we got together he got me a Boo toy from monsters ink and a Olaf toy from Frozen. So now we have another minion to add to our collection. Meet Little Messi!
And that I think is it in a nut shell, I think we did more but I cant remember names and the weekend feels like a blur now. It was the best way to celebrate my birthday and I think me and Cal will go back at some point, to cover the places we didn't get time to go to this time. It is so easy to get around there with the metro and we had no trouble there what so ever. I definitely recommend Barcelona if you are a person who likes to go exploring all day instead of sitting around by the pool on holiday. We did go when it wasn't so hot that you were sweating all day so it might be a little more hard work in high heats but the views and experiences are worth it.
The only thing I found we were a little disappointed about was the nightlife over there, although we didn't want to go crazy and get drunk in a Spanish club, we wouldn't have minded some bars or restaurants to drink in in the evening. Although some nights we were so tired from walking we went to bed at 9, they were 12 hours days I think we were allowed haha.
I plan now to soak my feet in the foot spa all day and eat lots of white chocolate eggs (yes I have white chocolate eggs!!) and try and plan something equally amazing for Cal's birthday next year, wish me luck! :)
On the Tuesday night me, my family and my boyfriend went out for a meal to celebrate my birthday, we had the meal two days before my birthday because for the last few months Cal had been planning a surprise for my birthday with my family and he wanted to tell me at my birthday dinner, I knew he was taking me away some where so I wanted enough time to get prepared and pack so I planned the meal a few days before we left. To be perfectly honest I thought he was taking me to somewhere in England, my first thought was Cambridge because he knows how much I enjoy it there. He was a little cutie and made a moon pig card with lots of hints to where I was going (even though I didn't get any of them and thought it was Newcastle...) and it turned out that he was taking me to Barcelona!
I am not ashamed to admit that after 5 minutes of 'really? are you kidding? are we really really?' that when It sunk in we were going there I cried, much to Cal's shock. Then another thought hit me, what am I going to take to Barcelona?! That will come in another post don't you worry.
We travelled there for what equalled to 3 days (one morning and evening and two full days) and now that we are back I plan on resting in bed until I am back at work Wednesday. There is so much to do there I was knackered by the last day! We stayed in this holiday in a really quite area in the Inner City called Tryp Condal Mar which was so lovely. Silly me was too busy exploring to remember to take photos of the hotel or even our rooms but trust me it was amazing.
The hotel was a 10 minute walk from a big shopping centre called Diagonal Mar (which we took full advantage of) and the metro. Every day we left the hotel around 9 and went to the metro to travel to our first stop. We got a 3 day travel card which was 20.50 euros each which is really good. With only a Barcelona map and a tube guide we travelled everywhere!
Since Cal had planned and paid for this whole trip we definitely had to visit the FCBarcelona Stadium for him which he loved. Even I enjoy walking round the stadium, and sitting on the balconies and walking by the Pitch. Cal also got a photo with a picture of Messi so he was extra happy.
We went to see the Cathedral and two of Gaudi's houses which are so cool. The only annoying thing we found with these places is that the queues to go in them are ridiculous! We weren't prepared to waste our days in queues to see one thing, we were happy seeing the outside and then moving on to another place. Sagrada Familia is definitely worth a visit, the building is amazing and it is right in front of your face when you walk out of the metro.
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| The Cathedral |
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| Sagrada Familia |
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| Sagrada Familia |
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| Sagrada Familia |
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| Gaudi's house |
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| Gaudi's house |
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| Museu d'art Contemporani de Barcelona |
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| Museu nacional d'art de Catalunge |
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| Museu nacional d'art de Catalunge |
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| Museu nacional d'art de Catalunge |
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| Museu nacional d'art de Catalunge |
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| Museu nacional d'art de Catalunge |
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| Museu nacional d'art de Catalunge |
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| Museu nacional d'art de Catalunge |
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| Museu nacional d'art de Catalunge |
One morning and one evening we took a stroll down to the beach which was lovely, it was really quite and peaceful and the only people we saw was runner after runner first thing in the morning. I can imagine it being packed during the summer and I would like to go back to sit on that beach in the sun, but then again there is too much there to just sit around for hours.
On our last night after dinner in our favourite restaurant in the Diagonal Mar centre ( the best steak house ever) we went to the arcade to get rid of a few of our last change and ended up finding a bowling alley at the back. We played a game to end the night (which I lost badly) and then went to leave to go back to the hotel when Cal stopped to play on a grab machine (you know the ones that you use the grip to pick up a cuddly toy and it always lets go after a second), he used a few euros and didn't win anything. Then we went to leave again and he spotted a minion one and wanted to have one last go, so I found a euro at the bottom of my purse and... he won me a minion! It was the best way to end the holiday as he has a thing of buying me cuddly toys. Even before we got together he got me a Boo toy from monsters ink and a Olaf toy from Frozen. So now we have another minion to add to our collection. Meet Little Messi!
And that I think is it in a nut shell, I think we did more but I cant remember names and the weekend feels like a blur now. It was the best way to celebrate my birthday and I think me and Cal will go back at some point, to cover the places we didn't get time to go to this time. It is so easy to get around there with the metro and we had no trouble there what so ever. I definitely recommend Barcelona if you are a person who likes to go exploring all day instead of sitting around by the pool on holiday. We did go when it wasn't so hot that you were sweating all day so it might be a little more hard work in high heats but the views and experiences are worth it.
The only thing I found we were a little disappointed about was the nightlife over there, although we didn't want to go crazy and get drunk in a Spanish club, we wouldn't have minded some bars or restaurants to drink in in the evening. Although some nights we were so tired from walking we went to bed at 9, they were 12 hours days I think we were allowed haha.
I plan now to soak my feet in the foot spa all day and eat lots of white chocolate eggs (yes I have white chocolate eggs!!) and try and plan something equally amazing for Cal's birthday next year, wish me luck! :)
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