Well, can't you just tell I'm back?

Can’t you just tell that I’m back from my holidays!

Not only is it October (which means that the shops are full of Christmas cards, baubles, tinsel and crackers but nothing that is remotely useful in the meantime), but it’s p*****g down with dull grey skies. The train was late this morning and therefore missed its ‘slot’ all the way up the line and got stuck at every red signal between Oxted and Victoria, and I waited 25 minutes for a circle line tube which was, apparently, running a ‘good service’.  

To top it all off, we have no phone nor internet due to a major fault at BT’s end (along with most of Bletchingley and Godstone, so I understand) so I can’t check my bank account to see how much I have overspent on my holidays and The Hubby cannot complete an important job application form which must be done by Wednesday and submitted on line. The BT fault reporting line says the problem is not likely to be fixed until Wednesday 3^rd, which means in more ways than one we are totally f****d! So I’m writing this at work!

I could turn this into a rant, which might at least make me feel better, but mostly it would serve no purpose other than bore you all rigid. But I must say there’s nothing like a good rant from time to time as I’m sure you’ll agree. To be honest, there doesn’t even have to be anyone there to listen or to reply to me, just getting it all out of the system is incredibly cathartic.

I have in the past made the mistake of having the rant without also dealing with the issue calmly and reasonably. It’s an approach which has got me nowhere and lost me a few friends. So now, I tend to rant on here and be reason personified (well, for a while) to resolve it or get what I want. But I still think there is a definite place for the rant, and that it’s very important.

I could never be one of those repressed people that don’t show their feelings at all. I mean, surely we all need an outlet? I always get the feeling that that sort of person must go home and punch through the living room door in frustration, don’t you? Either that or they kick the cat or something!  If they don’t what do they do to calm down and sleep at nights? There’s no way that I could go to bed and sleep (even though emotion and frustration makes you exhausted) if I hadn’t managed to get it out of my system somehow.

Some people, of course, turn to counselling and good luck to them if it works for them. It never has for me, and every counsellor I have ever come across (I saw a couple of them when my first marriage broke down) has been a sanctimonious, patronising w****r (gosh, there’s a lot of swearing in today’s blog! Must mean I feel strongly). And many people I know (but not all) who have seen counsellors certainly don’t seem to have derived any benefit from it, but then perhaps I have a biased and slightly jaundiced view of them (the counsellors, not the friends!)

Anyway, got to knuckle down now for a few weeks until I go away again (the benefit of having your own place abroad is you can go often and cheaply!). Knowing my luck it’ll chuck it down the whole time and there will be a major rail failure at least once a week. Hey ho…..

We’re all goin’ on a summer holiday…

So sang Sir Cliff Richard in the halcyon days of the sixties when a summer holiday was your only holiday and was usually a week in the sun (hopefully) at Bognor, although for most people it didn’t involve a double decker bus! If it rained, you made the best of it and sat on the beach in your anorak, and if you were one of the lucky few with shed loads of cash, you took yourself off to France or what sounded like an exotic Mediterranean island such as Capri, or you went for a fortnight instead of just a week. Holidays any further afield, or for longer, were at that time strictly for the jet set and for movie stars only.

Despite the fact that the destinations have changed – become more far flung, exotic and needless to say more expensive – and the range of activities we undertake has expanded to include annual skiing holidays, various other sports and ‘activity holidays’ such as cookery schools and painting retreats, and also that we probably all have more holidays and leisure time now than we did fifty years ago, we still look forward to and anticipate our main summer holidays as much as ever.

We are very lucky in that we bought our house in Greece about six or seven years ago when the exchange rate was good and we could afford it – we certainly couldn’t now. As such, we can buy cheap flights as soon as they are released and have been known to get return flights to Iraklio in early summer for less than £80. We try to get out there three or four times a year, and today we are jetting off on our annual summer fortnight together (other holidays are sometimes taken on our own due to work commitments). My daughter, who lives with us, is looking forward to having the run of the house in return for feeding my cats and watering my plants.

I can’t wait. We fly from Gatwick in the afternoon and we should be there about 11pm, local time. That means we can nip out for a nightcap at the local kafenion before tucking in for the night and so be fresh and ready to sleep on the beach the next day.

The first week of any fortnight is always down time. Usually, we are so tired that all we want to do is eat, sleep, sunbathe and relax. By the second week, we are ready to do a bit more and this time we are thinking of exploring the south of the island a little more and visiting the fourth Minoan Palace on Crete at Phaestos. We have been to all the others  at Knossos, Malia and Zakros. By the way, don’t bother going to Zakros – it’s a horrendous drive over virtual goat tracks to see something which is, in essence, just a pile of stones now, and there’s neither a café nor toilets. Anyway, getting to Phaestos will involve a fairly long drive and probably an overnight stay. On the way, we have also been recommended to visit a resort called Matala, which is meant to be spectacularly beautiful and very peaceful as it is off the usual tourist trail due to its remote location.

There are people that say to be “Don’t you get bored going back to the same place each time?” and to a certain extent I can see where they are coming from, but I must say the novelty of having my own house on a beautiful island in the Med hasn’t worn off and I don’t think it will for a while. While I am working, and while my leisure time is so precious (as is my time with The Hubby), it suits me fine to go back to a place with guaranteed weather, where I have my own stuff, I know where everything is, I understand how things work and I can relax as soon as I get on the plane. Yes, I would like to explore other places and go further afield as well as elsewhere in the UK, but for now I am perfectly happy thank you, and all that can wait until I am retired. We can fly to other countries from Athens as well as from London, and when we do come back to the UK to see family we can travel around too. So there’s no rush.

I am now going to shut down for a fortnight, but I will be making copious notes to inform various blogs when I get back. I have written several which will publish while I am away, so enjoy, and I will (metaphorically) see you all soon!

Off on holiday

Just after the Easter break in England, I will be off on holiday. I am going to Crete with The Hubby to be there for Greek Easter, which is their biggest celebration of the year.

And if you are a burglar reading this, no, my house will not be empty. I have a teenage daughter on break from uni who, like most teenagers, spends their entire time either sleeping, eating me out of house and home, wrecking the bathroom or watching TV. I fully expect her to be welded to the sofa for the whole time I am away with large bottles of coca cola and an unlimited supply of chocolate digestives by her side (along with her mobile phone, of course) watching endless soaps and American trash drama. And even if not I have three ferocious moggies who will eat you as soon as look at you. So don't even think about it!

This holiday seems like it has been a long time coming. The winter, whatever the weather men say, has felt long, grey and dreary. Work is getting more and more manic as cuts are made and staff leave. Our own money seems to be flowing out of the door in an endless stream of household expenses and ever increasing bills. We both feel exhausted. Some Cretan sun will be very welcome.

I am going for about 9 days, and The Hubby is joining me a day or so later (he couldn't get the time off work as his boss is a total w****r  about authorising leave (oops - better hope he isn't reading this!). We will be there for the Easter Saturday night celebrations and also Orthodox Easter Sunday when hopefully, if it is warm enough, we will barbeque on the beach, or maybe on the balcony. It will be a week of just relaxing in the sun, reading, writing and for me, learning my lines.

I have been spray tanning myself for the last couple of weeks and look a nice golden colour (mostly, one or two places are a bit patchy but never mind), have booked an appointment to get my highlights done again so I will be lovely and blonde once more (the Greek men do like a blonde, I have discovered!) and have booked an appointment to get my nails done and have my eyebrows waxed. I've bought a new handbag. So I'm ready, I think, apart from a little bit of packing!

I can't wait! I do get used to the pace of life in the UK and I am used to not seeing The Hubby from Sunday night until Friday evening (or that's quite often what it feels like) but to be honest I married him because I wanted to spend time with him so holidays when we can  have time totally to ourselves without worrying about work, children, relatives or anything else are very precious. I expect we'll do a bit of walking which you can't do in the summer as it's too darn' hot, some sunbathing and some socialising. It'll be great.

I hope the weather's decent. Last year I went to Crete with two girlfriends for Easter and it was cold and wet. To add insult to injury, the week we were away it was beautiful in the UK. So here's hoping the sun shines on me this time. It owes me one!

To tan or not to tan?

Very soon, I am going away for a week to warmer climes (hopefully). It will be before the real tourist season and before the real warm weather starts, but hopefully it will still be warmer than here (actually last year it wasn't - we froze in the spring rain in Crete at about 12 degrees and it was 26 degrees in the UK).


After an English winter deprived of sun (whetever they say at the Meteorological Office, I haven't noticed it being much warmer than usual) I look incredibly white and pasty. So I am considering whether to get a spray tan so that at least if I strip off on a sunbed, they don't think some new variety of great white whale has been beached.


I had a spray tan last year and it was rather good. Quite subtle, but giving that nice sunkissed look you get after a few days in the Mediterranean. But things are a bit tight this year, and twenty five quid on that is twenty five quid I can't spend on cocktails or meals out. So it's a tough call.


At least spray tans are better for you than sunbeds. My youngest daughter uses a sunbed occasionally and no matter how many times I nag her about the dangers she won't stop. It's made even worse by the fact that naturally, she has lots of moles on her skin which apparently makes you more vulnerable. But now she's got her job back, perhaps she will get sprayed again as she will have some money, and stop using the beds. Let's hope.


An alternative is of course to 'do it yourself', and some of the brands on the market at the moment are very good. I did try DIY tanning last year and had OK results, although I don't think I exfoliated enough and after a while the dry skin on my shin flaked off leaving me with a snakeskin type effect - very interesting! It's also quite difficult to do your own fake tan on your back and I ended up twisting and turning like Houdini trying to get 100% coverage, and failing.  But you live and learn, and I won't make the same mistakes again, and I will use more moisturiser.


Definitely, I look healthier with a tan and my ever blonder hair also looks more attractive with a tanned face. It's better to pay a little more and get a brand which turns you a nice golden colour and not orange, and if you are naturally pale like me not to try and go too dark, which makes you look like a refugee from the Black and White Minstrels (now that's showing my age!).


So I shall have to fork out for a decent brand in a week or so's time to apply it every few days and let the colour slowly build up. By the time I get on that plane I will look lovely and healthy and regardless of whether the weather is rubbish or not, at least I will look like I have been in the sun. And I won't match the Easyjet corporate colours either!


Can't wait - roll on holidays, here I come!

I don't have time to go to work!

I don’t have time to go to work. Regardless of whether I enjoy it when I get there (and usually I don’t), I simply don’t have time.

There is always too much to do and not enough time to do it in. I am not arrogant enough to assume I am the only one in this position, but it does seem to be a permanent state for me.

We have a 1950s house which constantly needs minor maintenance done to it for which we cannot afford to pay and so have to do it ourselves. We have a large garden which grows like Topsy with several mature trees and plants – lovely to look at but time consuming to look after. Between us we have five children between 17 and 24 who all still need help, guidance and advice on various issues – don’t listen to anyone that tells you parenting stops at 18 because they have clearly never had children of their own. We are both trying to eat healthily and exercise more, both of which take time and effort. On top of that I am trying to have a life by doing what I love – amdram – and helping run the Society, and The Hubby is trying to keep in touch with his friends from various past lives and socialise too. It’s all too much! We can end up not seeing each other from Sunday night through to Friday, and that’s not good.

In this past week I have only had one evening commitment but that’s unusual. Often I am out two or three nights and we have things planned at the weekend too. The other day I sat down with the diary and tried to find a date to see a very good friend just for a glass of wine and a natter and we had to go for something at the end of April. It’s madness!

Much of this is, of course, self inflicted. I don’t have to do shows, nor do I have to sit on the Society’s committee. We could move to a nice little two bedroom flat with no garden (the cats would hate it!), built recently, and in one stroke get rid of all the home upkeep chores.  We could tell our kids to get on with it and learn the hard way like we did!

But we won’t do any of these things. When work is so demanding and as unsatisfying as it is for both of us now, you have to have something that keeps you going and for us it’s our relationship and the things we have and like to do. So what we have to do is find a way of managing it and keeping it all in proportion.

That is not as easy to do as it is to say. Sadly, work does have to come first – it pays the bills for two houses and provides just about enough to fund a reasonable lifestyle (although that is getting tougher). If one of us were made redundant, we’d have to rethink but for now we have decided to struggle through with a plan which has light at the end of the tunnel in terms of finances and time. We reckon in five years time, we will be in a much better place – five years!

We have taken a day off this week, and in the not too distant future we have a week away which can’t come quickly enough. Until then we’ll struggle along trying to fit it all in, and when we get there we’ll wonder where the time has gone. No change there, then!