It all started with oysters.* I love oysters. I adore oysters. Yummy! So fresh and delicious with lemon, shallot vinegar and a good dash of tabasco. You either love oysters or you hate them. The first time I tried them I wasn’t too impressed but somewhere along the way, our love affair began.
All this complaining about the lack of summer and here it is. It turns up when all hope is lost. When emigrating abroad starts to become a real possibility. When you can stand it no more in the grey, freezing, miserable weather. 30 degrees, even 31. They say its going to be a loooong , hot summer now. Well, at least the next few weeks are going to be balmy. What has happened to our good old English weather. It’s become moodier than a teenager!
It seems like a long time has passed since those three idyllic days in Hampshire. The clear blue sky and swimming outdoors temperatures, those days that we have now classed as our summer, having given up on any reemergence of the sun this year. Long gone!
So, I’ve planned a mini-break. A little tour of the best that Hampshire has to offer. As you will know, I’ve always been an avid traveller and whenever possible, a luxury one at that. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for simplicity too but my standards are very high ( especially when it comes to cleanliness I’m a self diagnosed, borderline OCD sufferer!). I find, that in order to narrow your chances of disappointment, opt for the most luxurious option. That said, I’ve stayed in South America in fabulous, out-if-this-world, spotless lodges with no heating or electricity and have complained numerous times in the world’s top hotels, where everything has fallen below par when compared to the price you pay.
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Beauty can mean so many things to so many people, but here we mean what does it mean to you and how you perceive yourself and how you feel others see you? How many times have you heard people say, ‘True beauty comes from within?’ You may have heard it said several times by someone from your close family, perhaps when you were a teenager, stressing about your muffin top, the latest bout of acne or another body issue. While you may have believed this advice to be intrinsically true, you probably disregarded it as being irrelevant to your life.
Here I am. Back in London. Sitting on my bed. Grey outside. Very, very cold. Unseasonably cold. You know when you look forward to your holiday and when you are there you never think it’s going to end and you take it for granted? Well, I do. So well. You spend ages looking forward to it and it’s over. We so nearly stayed another three nighst. We were so tempted. You really need two weeks to properly enjoy Mauritius. To get into the swing of things and to relax. We split our holiday into two parts and the second was ‘beach, beach, beach’! Soft, white sand beach as far as the eye could see, fringed with palm trees to shield you from that wonderful thing called the sun that we don’t see very often here! And then, a turquoise sea; the picture postcard image, it truly was.
This is an unusual post for me. It takes me back to my former life of investments and numbers! It caught my eye and my heart when I visited. A short (ish) 11 hour direct flight from the UK and you are there – paradise! A tropical island so green you could be in the UK but teeming with flowers and wildlife and surrounded by turquoise water lapping palm-fringed, white sand beaches. Did I mention that this place is a melting pot of cultures ; Chinese, Creole, Indian, French? Happy, friendly and laid back with all the advantages (think food!) that come along with this eclectic mix.
Two weeks in paradise is officially over. I’m writing this post in two parts because I want to tell you all about an amazing family-friendly destination and the two brilliant places that we stayed. We went to Mauritius for the first time. We are a very well-travelled couple, having taken advantage of the City money and needing the escape from stress there are few exotic places that I’ve wanted to visit that I haven’t been to already but amazingly, Mauritius always seemed to get overlooked in favour of the Maldives (quieter, but for de-stressing) or Thailand (colour and culture, smiles and sun). I love long haul. I love the exotic, the excitement of new and different cultures, the sense,s the smells. We have been adventurous in our time too but admittedly, in relative luxury (Bolivia and Peru come to mind).
This one is pretty new to me I have to admit. A UK beach holiday, that is. Well, it’s new for my current lifetime, however in my previous life as a carefree toddler and child, somewhere very close by did feature significantly in my life. What am I talking about, you ask? I’m talking about Dorset and more precisely, Sandbanks, near Poole and Bournemouth. According to Wikipedia; ‘ the 4th highest property value in the world’ is this small peninsula crossing the mouth of Poole Harbour. Also know as Britain’s ‘Palm Beach’ apparently! I didn’t see enough to feel qualified to truly comment on our overnight stay but I can say that I saw some stunning properties on the drive down to the hotel which sits in pride of place directly on the blue flag beach on its one side and a gorgeous view out to the natural bay of Poole Harbour on the other (hence rooms are either sea view or harbour view-neither too shabby!).
