Alex’s Grandma hasn’t been very well recently, so last week we took a quick trip down to Devon to pay her a visit. Luckily, she has made it to the ripe old age of ninety four and there seems to … Continue reading
Abode Hotel Exeter Review
Category Archives: Travel
San Francisco Trip
So, I’m back from San Francisco. We shopped, ate and walked our way around the city for a few weeks and I have returned with an empty purse – As expected. San Francisco isn’t cheap and I’d mainly blame this … Continue reading
To Pack Or Not To Pack – That is the Question
So, we’ve got one whole week until I go away on holiday and I’m already getting the urge to pack. This is nothing new. I like to be organised, and I quite like to have my case out in plenty … Continue reading
Begrudgingly Spending
WOW! Going on holiday is an expensive business isn’t it!? I always wondered why people could never afford to go away as much as we have been traveling over the past 5 years… Until now, that is. I’ve been planning … Continue reading
The Aviator Hotel
This Christmas I was lucky enough to have the pleasure of staying at The Aviator. It’s not often that I need to stay in a hotel when I’m only an hour or so away from home. However, on this occasion, … Continue reading
Paella – The Spanish Way
Well, we are back from our holiday in Spain and are currently sitting it out at the in-laws’ place for a few weeks while they are in France and someone else is occupying our flat. One big home-swapping chain! I can’t wait to finally get back to my own bed and have all of my things in one place but alas, no doubt as soon as that happens we will have to pack it all up again and move into our new home. I am excited about the move (honest)… Just not so keen on the packing and unpacking. I actually think I’m beginning to feel a bit like the littlest hobo might have felt but with MUCH more baggage!
Our last few days in Spain went far too fast for my liking and we ran out of time to cover all the areas we wanted to visit. However, our final base in Mijas was just what the doctor ordered and we even managed to find some time for a fabulous lesson on how to make Paella from the very lovely Janet Mendal. Janet is an American-born author who has written five Spanish cookery books. I think she was definitely the one to learn from. It was a great help that she wasn’t speaking in Spanish to us like everyone else and as I had never really even eaten a decent Paella before (let alone made one), I really learnt a lot in the hour or so we were with her. Our wonderful host provided us with entrees and wine whilst she cooked up a storm with great ease and explained how things were done. Then we just popped next door, lit up the mosquito candle, poured the wine and stuffed ourselves silly on the terrace. Bliss.
Rather than listening to me ramble on about how to make Paella why not take a look here on Janet’s blog – My Kitchen in Spain (Why would you want to hear it from me – A pure novice? ) Her blog is very insightful and has spurred me on to try and cook some more traditional Spanish dishes in the near future.
Janet has a lovely home just a short drive away from the center of Mijas and we stayed in the private studio next door. It took me a good few days to get used to the bugs in the surrounding area but I think I actually conquered my fears and can now actually ignore the buzzing of the wasps without running around and flapping my arms about like a mad woman with a rocket up her rear end! I tracked her studio down after hours of searching on the net for an affordable place for two, that was private and a bit more secluded than the usual hotel option. Being surrounded by the olive trees and hills really gave us the sense of being part of the real Spain and we were well away from the saturated holiday resorts that most people travel to the Costa Del Sol for.
The only thing that we were not initially looking forward to about the studio was the separate beds, but let me tell you with the weather as hot as it was it was an absolute blessing to be on my own and not fighting off the covers that usually get thrown on top of me when a certain someone doesn’t want them!
I’d thoroughly recommend getting in touch with Janet if you too would like to learn how to make Paella and need a place to stay. It made for a lovely evening and lasted us for two nights, costing much less than the same meal in a restaurant.
Our Fab host showing us the Paella way.
Part way through…
The finished product…
Going, going...
Gone!
You can see more of Janet’s Studio here if you are interested in hiring somewhere affordable for your trip to Spain: http://www.holiday-home-rentals.co.uk/rentals/5837.html
Costa Del Sol
We’ve been in the Costa Del Sol for five whole days now and I’ve spent most those days melting in the heat. I’m not moaning – Just melting! It has been between 34-38 degrees every day and as lovely as a bit of heat is, it has taken some time to adjust. We now understand the Spanish routine of late, long and large lunches and small, very late dinners, but it’s really tricky getting into the habit when you’ve had the opposite drummed into you for over 30 years.
I wasn’t quite sure that Spain and I would get on at first, but it’s definitely growing on me. Not speaking the language we’ve found some things a bit tricky and I have been doing a lot pointing at menus, or simply pretending to know what people are saying. I don’t feel I’m going to get the most out of eating over here as I can’t read everything on the menu. I’d rather eat in one of the restaurants for the locals rather than the ones that feel obliged to put chicken and chips on the menu… I know, I know, I should have learned the language!
We spent the first three days driving around and checking out places such as Cadiz (which apparently could be the oldest city in Europe) and Jerez De La Frontera. We stayed in a fab hotel right in the center of town in Jerez called the Hotel Palacio Garvey. I’d love to have spent more time in the town and would definitely head back there. We hit a fabulous food market in Cadiz but unfortunately couldn’t take any of it with us for fear of it actually cooking in the boot of the car. It was nice enough there but Jerez won me over out of the two.
For the rest of our trip we will be based in Mijas which is about half an hour from Malaga. It’s full to the brim with English people. I knew this would be the case but wasn’t expecting quite so many. For that reason we have decided to take quite a few day trips to try to see a bit more of the real Spain… If that’s possible in the high summer season with our rubbish knowledge of the language. It’s so English that one of the restaurant owners (who was a full on Spaniard) asked us how we were in the cockney-ist of accents to try to entice us to eat at his place.
Alex sussing out the olives.
Look at the garlic on those… I did whiff for a while!
Wouldn’t need five of these in my stir fry.
Me. Still need to work on the tan.
Not so Easy (Jet)
Well, we finally made it to Spain a few days ago after spending what seemed like forever packing up our house ready for the one way ‘swap’ with the Australian couple. As usual we were cutting it pretty fine to make our flight and I’d only had a few hours sleep before we left. Never again will I book a flight that leaves before 6am. NEVER!
My hatred for easy jet has increased tenfold. First off, we got to the bag drop to find the one shared bag we had weighed 22kg instead of the required 20kg per bag each. So, instead of two bags with a total of 40 kg, Easyjet decided to fine us £20 for sharing and reducing… Lovely. Thanks for that.
We decided to treat ourselves to speedy boarding for this flight, only to find that everyone was going to be crammed onto a bus that would take us to the plane anyway! All six of us foolish enough to think we deserved a slightly more luxurious type of travel were shipped onto the bus at the same time as the rest of the scrum. This was definitely one of those occasions where we should have just pushed and shoved like the best of them in the mad dash to get a seat near our hand luggage. Money wastage… I think so.
It was pouring down with rain in London when we boarded. I was soaked and my copy of Grazia took a battering, shielding me from the downpour. It was either loose the mag or frizz up the hair and the hair won. In the end it didn’t really matter, as the minute I stepped off the plane into the Malaga heat, my hair doubled in size anyway!
Not ones for an easy life, we then had a mini crisis as we went to pick up the hire car. Alex didn’t have a pin number for his visa card as he presumed we could sign for everything. Alas, the rather brash and very rude woman at the Record Go car hire reception told us that the (made up) ‘law of Spain’ was chip and pin only and we could not use a visa debit or pay buy cash. We were stranded for about an hour and a half until I took out my Visa card and took a stab at remembering the pin number I hadn’t used for about 2 years! Luckily on the third attempt it went through and we were out of there and met by our little run around smart car. We had originally booked our car on the comparison site car hire 3000 who were very helpful but I’d suggest avoiding Record Go at all costs.
Since then, everything has got much better and I’m now totally relaxed, but struggling in the sweltering heat. I shall blog more about the good times soon. Until then… Meet our holiday hire car that nearly never was and me in the car (bored and tired).
Half the size of a normal car. Good job we only had one suitcase.
Forgot the sat nav sucker… Always forget something!
Me. Bored in the car.
House swapping… Not this time.
At this very moment I should really be living it up in Australia but alas, here I am sitting on my sofa about to tell you the story of why I am not (boo hoo). This would have been my fourth trip to what I thought was the country I would be living in permanently by now. However, we all know life takes different twists and turns and I guess it isn’t all bad that I am living another and just (about) as satisfying type of life here in London.
I first fell in love with Australia even before I stepped foot in the country way back in the late 90′s. My very first friend in London came from Sydney and from then on all I ever knew for years was the fun, frivolity and madness of the wonderful people from that far far away land… And then I met an Englishman.
My wonderful friends on the other side of the world (Kev counts as an Aussie even though he’s not quite one)
So, here we are six years later. To ease my pain Alex and I got into house swapping as soon as we purchased our first home. We are not really the type of people to shirk away from taking any type of risk in life and house swapping has simply opened up our travel options giving us the chance to see more of the world than we might normally have been able to afford.
It’s quite simple really. You find a few good house swapping websites, add details about your home, search out places you want to go to and then swap when you find the perfect match. As well as swapping homes you can swap cars and even go as far as swapping pets! There is no limit to the time you can swap for and trips generally seem to vary from a long weekend to around 6 months or more. So far we have only managed to find the time for a Sydney swap and one in Paris. Both were fabulously convenient and apart from Alex driving a car off a driveway in the dead of the night there were no other hiccups!
Quite a few people I know have said they would never feel safe swapping or just simply wouldn’t want someone else in their own private space. For me personally there is nothing better than being able to travel the world and see new things and I think this is one genius way to experience more in life. We have also had the chance to get to know like-minded people who we know will respect our home as much as we will theirs.
So, now for the sob story – We organised our second Australia swap about 8 months ago now and were due to leave for Melbourne last week. Unfortunately because of the poor timing of our flat sale (probably my fault) we had to think long and hard about whether or not to leave the UK for five weeks. To add to everything flight prices to Australia have just about doubled since the last time we went. Our decision to stay here in the UK was begrudgingly made and was an unusually sensible one made by me.
We are still upholding our side of the deal and the Melbourne couple will soon be winging their way over to London and into our home whilst we take a short break to Spain to grab some of the much-loved summer sun that we have been lacking here. I just simply couldn’t leave them with no place to stay and really don’t mind the thought of someone using our place for a while as a base for their UK adventures.
To use (some of) the words of that slightly nuts Austrian-American … Australia ‘I’ll be back’ (SOON)
Our Sydney house swap in 2009
The (not so) locals at Sydney Harbour
Obligatory harbour shot
One of the rare breeds… (Alex that is)
With This Ring…
Over the past few weeks quite a few people have been asking me when I’m going to get married. I’m engaged you see and have been for about a year and a half. I guess this is about the time that people start expecting their invites?
When Alex proposed he did not ask me to marry him. He asked me if I would engage him. He knows me well… I’m not really the marrying type. He even asked me whilst I was eating my chocolate dessert. Tactics of course – He knew I was in a good mood and would probably agree to anything with my mouth stuffed full of my favourite pud.
Getting married is not something I’m convinced about yet. All that standing around declaring my love in front of people who have blagged a ticket to a free and very expensive meal, just because they know me… Oh no, I’m not falling for that one! Apparently there are plenty of ways of doing weddings on the cheap but that’s simply not my style darling! What with the average wedding cost being around £15,000 and most of the friends living in Australia and New Zealand, I don’t think I’ll be able to negotiate having mine anytime soon.
The one down side to not having our ‘big day’ is that we probably won’t ever get an excuse to splash out on a fabulous trip abroad right after a good old knees up with everyone we know. I was very tempted to enter this Destination Honeymoon competition that I saw on Airbnb. I’d love nothing more than to get away from it all in The British West Indies or even closer to home in Tuscany but alas, there is no chance of me being lawfully married before the requested date. Perhaps one of you would like to enter? You will no doubt be able to remember the first time you met you’re loved one better than me anyway. (Those party days never did me any good at all!)
Ever the romantic through and through. That’s me.
