This is still me ❤️

Last Thursday, I spent an enjoyable day relaxing around the pool reading my latest book Hostage by Clare Macintosh. Probably not the best book to be reading when I have a 9-hour flight ahead of me next week but oh well. It was very good. In the evening, we had booked a Japanese tepanyaki restaurant for dinner and were heading to an Irish bar for drinks before. We do love an Irish bar and manage to find one on almost every holiday, it’s only a matter of time before Cuba and the Maldives get one! After a delicious dinner, we headed back to Murphy's bar and I was by now drunk enough to partake in some karaoke, I was shortly followed by a former pop idol & ex-factor applicant sterling, so if at any point, I had thought my singing was passable, I didn’t after that! The following day, I felt so ill! Was this food poisoning or just a hangover? I hadn’t drunk that much, no more than I had drank the weekend before I went away. I spent most of the morning feeling like I was on one

A seamless journey to Florida After our last holiday back in November , I was honestly so grateful that this journey went smoothly. I didn’t want the boys first long haul journey to be any more painful than it had to be. We got to the airport in plenty of time, we boarded on time & landed slightly early. They were a little tired and bored but that’s to be expected. I’m just hoping our journey home is just as smooth. Visiting 3 amazing theme parks This week, we’ve visited all 3 Universal parks; Universal Studios was our first, which was amazing, you walk through streets of New York City Harry Potter and Simpson’s to name a few. Islands of Adventures has something for everyone, there is a land for toddlers with Dr Seuss, a Marvel section for the superhero fans and yet another Harry Potter part where you can get the Hogwarts express between Islands of adventure and universal studios. Volcano Bay , which I admittedly didn’t see much of as I wasn’t feeling great, but what I di

I start this post 35000 feet in the air (that’s just a guess, I'm not entirely sure how high we are, but that sounds about right) the night before we went away, the house felt so empty, despite having four people in it, the absence of Toby who is safely on his own holiday is like a big gaping hole in the house and I hate it. Still hormonal, I somehow managed not to cry, even when I see a video of a dog born looking surprised I almost cried, but I managed to control my emotions and sleep soundly. At 5 am I was up and feeling surprisingly calm (calm for me, which is probably not that calm) The boys have been so excited. It’s hard to feel anything but happy when you are in the company of such good energy. We had a stress-free journey to the airport and the most worrying thing that happened in my head was wondering if I would fit in the seat on the plane (I swear they looked smaller) I fit with ease and settled in for the long-haul flight. Safely ensconced in my seat and the air

Not only is it a new week, in a different country, its a new month so I will be spending some time on my July reflections. But for now, I will talk about my intentions for this coming week. I debated, whether to take some time off from doing this whilst I was away, but decided that setting intentions is always a good thing, even on holiday, plus I had a nine hour flight to think about it. Make time for self reflection This is something I am in a good habit of doing now and I don't want to lose momentum whilst I'm on holiday. I have brought my self reflection planner with me, but I did leave my law of attraction planner at home which was a compromise for me. Relax You would think that its a given when going on holiday, but I am a stress head and can, and have, managed to be stressed out on a tropical island in the middle of the ocean. I have also been told that Orlando can be quite stressful, so I am going to try my best to relax and go with the flow, which does not come n

An amazing weekend with friends Last weekend, we celebrated our good friend's birthday. On Saturday, a group of us went out for dinner, where there was delicious food, fantastic live singers and the best company, then on Sunday, we went to their house and celebrated some more, more food, more drinks, the live singers returned and I laughed so much. I honestly feel so grateful and honoured to have spent time with all of those people. Scheduling posts in advance Something I've been talking about doing for a while but going on holiday has made it more of a priority. 9 hours on a flight will also give me some time to write, although I do wonder how much of it will make sense after a few glasses of wine. A holiday We are taking the boys to Orlando in Florida. None of us have been before and we are all really looking forward to it. To be honest, I didn't think it was somewhere I would ever get to go so I am aware of how very lucky I am.

On the plus side, I've noticed that I have started looking forward to my nights out again. Before the pandemic, I went out a lot. Working in the city it was perfectly normal to go to the pub at lunch or after work, when the weekends came, I preferred being at home as I'd been out all week. Going out was such an everyday thing, it wasn't really fun anymore and when a big birthday event came along, I didn't look forward to It. Now, I tend to do my going out at the weekends like a normal person and I have started to look forward to those nights out again, I can think about what I'm going to wear and spend some time getting ready. On Saturday, I woke up at 7 am, excited for a morning to chill out. I sat down and looked at my calendar. 9 am - Intervals. Oh, bugger. I'm doing cardio today. My brain starts to make excuses but I ignore them. It's happening. I'm doing it. No excuses. And I did. Did I enjoy it? Absolutely not. I couldn't find my sports br

Holiday Clothes I always have problems finding clothes I like, I used to be able to buy any old thing, safe in the knowledge. After too many years of enjoying myself, that privilege has been taken away and now I have to psyche myself up to try on clothes and there are almost always outfit tantrums . I made the mistake of having my first trying-on session in the evening after dinner when I was feeling ill. In the end, I was a sweaty mess, half from fever, half from the heatwave and I hated all of the outfits. I decided to try them again when I was feeling better, so on Thursday morning, I decided to do just that. I ended up keeping half of the things I had ordered, much to the husband's dismay. Yoga This has been on my list of weekly intentions on and off all year and I finally did it on Thursday! I did a beginner session, where I learned the importance of breathing and how to do this as well as some of the basic moves. I've tried beginner yoga a few times and this was b