Category: Life

• Activity: Cycling
• Distance: 3.1 mi
• Duration: 00:12:30

• Activity: Cycling
• Distance: 5.3 mi
• Duration: 00:20:00

Out on Friday night with some of our ‘new’ friends (and made some more as it happens, it was that kinda night).

Pondered buying a guitar (acoustic, I can’t play).

Saturday. A flight to London, the company of two very very lovely ladies, a cheeky wee night out, bed as the sun came up.

Sunday. A flight to Glasgow after navigating through several thousands of sodden people, bedecked in various ranges of Union Jack. Something to do with that old bird with the funny shiny hat thing…

Monday. An afternoon/evening/night with friends. The usual chats, and some of that honesty stuff I’ve talked about here before. Felt good and of course as they are my friends, they were very cool with it (and possibly want to know more).

Tuesday. Waking up happy. Then tired, and a little hungover grumpy. Parents returned from holiday and I pottered around my flat making more mess than I intended (I was trying to tidy up but got caught in ‘reorganise everything!’ mode).

Of course that’s not really what happened, but all that detail, the conversations, the revelations and realisations, the laughter and tears, the hugs, the smiles, the nerves, all of that is left in private.

We did done a holiday!

We had a few simple criteria for our holiday. It needed to be under £500 each, it needed to be somewhere hot and sunny, and ideally it needed to be all inclusive.

After various online searches, we had it narrowed down to a week in Cyprus, or a week in Tunisia. Icelolly.com helped keep the price to just under £400 pp and we ended up picking Tunisia as it was a bit different (and Kirsty has been to Cyprus before).

It’s safe to say we lucked out and had a fantastic holiday!

We stayed at a hotel that was built in the 1970s, built in the style of an old Medina, mostly two stories tall and sprawling over the area of a small town, it was Tunisian to the core. Driving past other hotels in the area (Yasminne Hammamet) and I have to admit it was nice to be in one of larger hotels (the more typical Costa del Sol style, 6-8 floors with boxy rooms).

The room upgrade helped too, of course.

I’ll admit that I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from Tunisian but I’d heard good things about the country and the people. I wasn’t proven wrong. The Tunisian people were friendly and, with a few words of faltering Arabic, always ready to help with a smile and a laugh.

The hotel itself was great, the staff efficient and an enthusiastic ‘animation’ team meant there were plenty of activiteis for us… to largely ignore (we did a bit of archery but our focus was to be lazy!), the food was great and well enough varied that you never got bored, and the sun did it’s bit and for the most part shone brightly, keeping things at toasty 28C or so (we think we topped 30C one of the days).

I ate camel steak, bartered in the souk (and no doubt still got ripped off), visited Carthage and Sidi Bou Said, had a wonderful Turkish Bath and massage, and did a whole lot of lazing around and chilling out.

In fact the only negatives were the security queues at the Enfidha airport, but such is life.

I’m back home now, feeling properly relaxed and upbeat, with a reasonable tan (we were only there for 7 days) and a desire to go back again. The resort itself is very similar to Andalucia, there is a Moorish influence to be found, and a similar climate. Learn a few basic Arabic phrases and don’t get put off by the sellers in the souk, it’s part of the fun to chat with them and avoid getting dragged into their stores ‘just for a look’.

I’d happily, highly, recommend it for a sunshine break. Yes, it was a package holiday, but with excellent customer service, it really did feel like we got a lot of value for our money.

Some of our memories of Tunisia.

But thought I’d say hello.

Gosh, quite a lot has happened in the past, what, 10 days.. hang on, IS THAT ALL? Blimey.

So, I bought a new car. It’s blue (Horizon Turquoise Blue to you). It’s a hybrid. It has a few nice gadgets. It’s quite small. It’s rather bloody lovely and looks like this:

Honda CRZ.

That website is about to get switched on so I will have a fair bit less stress and will finally be able to build my Lego Space Shuttle (my promise to myself for getting it launched… see what I did there…).

I’ve lost some more weight.

Then put some of it back on.

Then lost some more. The trend is still downwards but I also ended up on antibiotics so I’m not disheartened. Determined still!

I have also toyed with writing up my own inner thoughts as I continue to battle to lose weight, largely prompted by reading The Skinny Conspiracy which, if you battle with your weight, or an eating disorder, or just generally struggle with your own body image, then you might want to give it a read.

Ohh yeah, and one of several PPI claims came back with a settlement figure that was a VERY nice surprise (five figures nice!). So my ex-wife and I get a nice wee pot of cash. Smiles all round for that one.

Anyway, can’t stop. Website to launch and need to read up on my holiday.

Oh yeah… off to Tunisia at the start of May… didn’t I mention that?