16 October 2007

OK, OK .......

so I know I haven't blogged for a while, but I do have a good excuse - I've been in Portugal! For those of you who want to catch up on what I've been doing since my last post, sit back 'cause you are in for a long one now!!

Firstly, before I disappeared off to sunnier skies, I went on my first "quiet day". This was thanks to an article I read in Woman Alive magazine a few months back. It was talking about the Quiet Garden trust and how they organise away days. The idea is that people open up their gardens (and homes) for you to go and spend a day in (mostly) silence and spend time thinking, praying, reading, drawing or whatever takes your fancy.

One of the gardens featured in the article happened to be in Bisley near Stroud, so I booked to go. To be honest I was a bit worried about it since the thought of spending a whole day in silence was a bit alien! Well I needn't have worried, as it was the most amazing day. I have never felt so peaceful in my life. And I am not good at just sitting and being, but I spent the whole morning not actually doing anything - normally that would make me very antsy, but not this time. I then chose to spend the afternoon sewing, something I havent made time for in several years! I have to say that by the time the day ended (with the most gorgeous tea & cake!) I felt as if I had been on another planet for the day, where time had no meaning, I was so chilled.

It was such a fantastic experience that I have booked to go again in December - a week before Christmas, just what I need to cope with all the stress of the festive season. If you have a quiet garden near you, I thoroughly recommend finding the time to go and experience it for yourself.

After a manic week catching up with old friends, meeting family for an early birthday lunch, working, a lot of cooking and spontaneous entertaining we headed off for Portugal to meet up with my parents who were already out at our villa. We haven't had an autumn / winter holiday since we went to Africa in 2000 and let me tell you, being in 32 degrees instead of here in the rain was absolute bliss!

We had a fantastic week, especially since we celebrated both my parents wedding anniversary and my birthday while we were there.

For mum & dad's anniversary we went to a gorgeous hotel / restaurant for lunch - Monte do Casal. Well I say lunch, it was more like the whole day really as we didn't finish until gone 3.00pm! It really was as amazing as it looks! Somewhere I would love to stay at some point in the future - maybe a wedding anniversary weekend??!!


Apart from the stunning food, and beautiful setting, we were treated to the most wonderful guitar music while we ate, from a guy who managed to sing in Portugese, Italian and English! A great day to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon. And given that we were there for such a long time, the kids were amazingly behaved too!

We managed to grab several Portugese geocaches on holiday, including one at a Roman Villa, and one near a restored windmill on the top of a mountain. I love the fact that geocaching takes you to places you would never otherwise see!

The kids had a whale of a time at the villa - between the table football game and the pool we struggled to get them away from the place!


But we did manage a little bit of sightseeing, with a day trip to Tavira, a visit to a local pottery shop in Moncarapacho and a morning on the beach near Quateira.

Oh yes, nearly forgot my birthday! Anthony and I went out to a local restaurant (O Graciano) for dinner while Mum & Dad babysat the boys. We had been advised what to eat before we went as they serve several local specialites. So we ate home made soft cheese and marrow jam - gorgeous and then gorged ourselves with steak on a stone. The partially cooked steak arrived on a sizzling hot piece of granite & we then sliced off mouthfuls and finished cooking them ourselves. It was amazing! And yes, they did make us put those dreadful lobster bibs on!!

Apart from that we spent every afternoon in the pool and the rest of the time lazing around eating far too much food and drinking an awful lot of Vinho Verde and White Port & tonic. Now that's what I call a holiday!


When we got back to the UK we discovered that even with the postal strike we had a mountain of mail to deal with, so it took me a while to get to a large hardbacked envelope. I couldn't believe it when I opened it to find my exam certificate already. Yes, I passed those flippin' exams so I'm now a fully qualified aromatherapist - hoorah!!!!!

There - told you it was going to be a long one! Hope you haven't all fallen asleep yet! Promise the next one will be a bit sooner.

1 comment:

gvl said...

A fully qualified aromatherapist!! Congratulations! No stopping you now - your own parctice, your huge list of clientele who will be so impressed they'll book up weeks in advance.!! Well done! Hope Anthony bought you a huge congratulations gift!
Graeme