Me Time - Part 2 - Girls Mini Break!

 

Last weekend I had another bit of me time! I know, lucky me. Back in May, I had a brain wave to invite 3 of my good girlfriends away for a weekend break to the South of France. Our family have a little house there, so all we’d have to pay for was flight and car rental. Sweet. I asked the OH if he minded dealing with the kids for the weekend while I lounged by the pool, drank copious amounts of wine, ate cheese by the truckload, doubled my reading intake for this year and slept uninterrupted and he said that was fine. I *may* have said that he can have a similar weekend to this next spring.....hopefully his memory is short....

 

 

All in all it was a fabulous weekend. We did all the things mentioned above. Perhaps the amount of booze could have been reduced slightly (perhaps resisting the rum at the end of the evening) in order for us to actually come back from the weekend feeling rested but I guess it’s what you can expect when you let 4 mums (all with 2 kids each) loose. We chatted, read books, soaked up the sun, cooked, drank and RELAXED. It was just nice to do things at our own pace and without interruption. I wouldn’t change my life for the world and being away from my little family for 3 days did make me appreciate them so much on my return. However there’s nothing like taking time for yourself to for recharge your batteries. Happy days, and here’s hoping they’ll be some more me time soon! Thanks girls for a great time xx

Listography - Top 5 Favourite and Memorable Places I've visted

1. Thailand - Koh Lanta - Such a chilled out place. I have my friends to thank for putting me on to Koh Lanta, they went there on their gap year and loved it and I joined them for a holiday. Two years later I returned with my then boyfriend (now OH) and we had a fantastic time again - 4 whole weeks in paradise. All the surrounding islands are also beautiful. Time really does stand still here and I couldn't and still can't get enough of the Thai food. Best of all are the beaches, the water is sparkling and the snorkeling was brilliant.

2. Brazil - Rio - One of my favourite holidays was to Brazil and being at the Sambadrome for Carnaval. It really was crazy and went on for hours. The colours, the sights and sounds were just out of this world and you have to be there to really understand the vibrancy of it all. The costumes, or lack of costumes (!) were amazing and the floats must take the best part of a year to organise. The competition really is fierce between the different Samba schools, to win first prize. Amazing!

3. France - Saumur, Loire Valley - this was one of my first holidays with the OH and it was hilarious, but it was back in the day before we had a digi camera. Not having really been camping before we didn't appreciate all the equipment needed! So we drove to France, pitched up at our campsite feeling all pleased with ourselves that we had a tent, sleeping bags and a couple of disposable BBQ's. Who would have thought that you need a bit more than this: cutlery, plates/ bowls, chairs, gas stove, pans/ kettle and all manner of other camping gear!! Luckily we had people camping next to us who felt sorry for us and lent us a chair but we still had to make a trip to the supermarket to buy all manner of things. And to add to my mans misery the swimming pool wouldn't let the men in without wearing SPEEDO'S!! All in all it was a fabulous if not a little make shift holiday.

4. Greece - Naxos - Honeymoon. A wonderful island. Delicious Greek food (of course!) and a trip to the nudist beach - a first for us both, but now I've had kids, not something I'll be repeating!!

5. Norfolk - Wells Next The Sea - wonderful place on the Norfolk cost, lovely beaches - nearby Brancaster beach was used for Shakespeare in Love. I've been there twice and loved it both times. And the mussels bought from someones garage were huge and when cooked in a Moule Mariniere were out of this world! The second time there was a whole group of friends, probably the last time before having children that we all went away and didn't have a care in the world.

This post was inspired by the Listograpy blog post at:

Katetakes5

Check it out - Kate also recounts some wonderful trips to make you envious!