Viva Espana- We're off to Sunny Spain

Good afternoon people.

I am writing this from a gloriously sunny back garden in Swindon.I am typing between daydreams of my forthcoming week in Spain. Just a few days after completing the Race for Life, I will be jetting off with P and Sun to Nerja in Andalucía for a week of rest and relaxation by our villas private “infinity pool”.
Now, I don’t know how many of you are familiar with the “infinity” concept but apparently it means situated in such a way that it does not appear to have an edge on at least one side; our pool for example drops away over the side of one of the lovely Andalucían mountains and you therefore have a wonderful view whilst swimming in the pool. I shamefully, was not familiar with the “infinity” concept and embarrassed myself, just recently, by telling all and sundry that an infinity pool was shaped in a figure of 8 and as such you could swim around the edge of a pool for infinity without colliding with a pool side- as you would if you just swam up and down the length or indeed breadth of a standard pool!!! After much laughter (not mine), I was educated by my dear friend Rosemary, of the real meaning of the “infinity” concept but not before I had blamed P (my very intelligent other half) for misinforming me in the first instance!!!

So with time gathering speed and our holiday fast approaching I have been trying to organise a few essentials such as sun cream, new tee shirts for Sun, Travel Wash, and mosquito killer for P and I have also been agonising over matters such as shall I pack my period knickers just in case (only God knows the answer to that one!!) and even more painfully, what will my pool side attire be this year? Now, had P, Sun and I been travelling alone, it wouldn’t have been an issue but Rosemary and Steve and our good friend Jane (see And We’re Off… for low-down on Jane!!) are coming with us.

Let me explain my anxiety. As a mere strip of a girl, I was persuaded by a close friend to have a tattoo discretely placed on my body. Not being terribly brave I chose a small but beautiful (now considered naff) butterfly and decided that it would have to be tattooed low down on my left hip, so that I could show it off or keep it hidden from others. Little did I know that not even I would see it for the best part of these last ten years!! It has lain hidden, even from me, under an unsightly fold of (I would like to say relaxed muscle!!) tummy fat!!

The good news is, that as a result of my training programme for the race, P tells me that the little fellow has started to emerge and I have in truth glimpsed on a couple of occasions, the tip of his left wing. So things are looking up, not least my stomach, and if I keep the running up after the Race for Life my little butterfly may well be in full flight again one day!!! Hooray!!!

But for now, my pool attire dilemma remains and I am left wondering how I can get as much sun on my body, God knows it needs it, without putting our fellow travellers off of their grilled squid or indeed having the Spanish equivalent of air-sea rescue trying to rope me and drag me back down to the ocean, where all beached whales surely belong.

It is obviously time for another trip to Evans- the outsize store- as my Dad insists on calling it. And to think I once asked an Evans store assistance if they had a skirt in a size 12; not because I wanted to buy it but just because I could!! That’ll teach me!!!

Quote of the week:

P: Hey look at you, you’ve lost weight.
Me: Really, have I?
P: Absolutely. You only have 2 bellys now!!!!

Til next time
Julie

;0)