So what did I get up to while I was away??

I had a few days at home firstly, which was actually really useful... I managed only an hour each day on-line (I know, I know... I did say I wouldn't log in!) and caught up on things around the house... the dreaded things you wish you could put off forever!! Then Darrin flew me away to Gran Canaria for a week... 'Thank you honey!'

I've not been good at flying for a long time... the result of sitting next to a work colleague who was petrified of flying... for some reason the hysteria really rubbed off on me and since Granddad passed away I've been very conscious of mortality... not just mine, everyone I come into contact with, even strangers on the street I see smoking! So as you can imagine the panic did build up!! Fortunately though I had a friend who could help... I almost forgot all about her, but then by chance we exchanged emails and I thought, 'she is just the person to ask... go on, may be she can help?' And she could!

Carolina of http://en.dawanda.com/shop/magickshop, has over 18 years of experience with natural remedies and modern witch craft, which you can tap into on her blog at http://magickshop.wordpress.com/. So I felt more than confident in her prescription.

Now while I don't see myself as a practising witch or anything, I do believe in natural approaches to medicine, healing and empowerment... so Carolina is someone I feel a connection to and am very inspired by. Firstly, she talked me through which amulets to wear, or hold to feel comfort... then recommended a tea recipe. I scouted my tumble stone collection out and found any matching stones and went shopping for the tea... can you believe it I couldn't find half of the ingredients (and there wasn't that many!) Fortunately I have noticed that Carolina now has a range of teas in her shop... no more searching for me!

Secondly, I really love aromatheraphy so I asked Carolina if she had a perfume from her shop's collection that could help to keep me calm... she recommended 'Elizabeth', filled with a fresh soothing bloom fragrance. I couldn't help myself it sounded just the thing...

My little parcel arrived about a week before the flight... here it is... all wonderfully packed.

And with a few small gifts too... a handmade notepad (which is now in my purse) and a sample of incense (which I'm going to try out over the next few weeks).

The perfume smells divine, by the way...

On my few days off before the flight I spent a little time calming my nerves, which had hit a peak one evening following a nightmare and I have to say I felt much better, more in control... oh, I'm so silly! And on the day of the flight I felt only a few nerves, which Darrin was there to iron out for me.

Here's the beach... now you won't see sky like that in the UK right now!!

Here's just how packed the beach was last year, compared to the practically empty feel of this year... all the cafe owners were complaining... 'where's the English, where's the English?', they say. It seems that things are tough in the holiday industry.

I refuse point blank to show you pictures of me in my swimwear, I don't want to put people off of their food, so instead here's a picture of me from last year looking rather red and tired out from all that relaxing!

We both dutifully waved to Carolina every morning and raised a glass in the evening... Tenerife where she lives is the island in the photo below. We did talk about meeting up... I could have got an island-hop flight, but we just didn't have the money this year. So we settled for waving instead...

What did we get up to apart from the beach... well very little really... we read 3-4 books each, went to a barbecue, jumped in the pool like kids half our age and ate too much ice cream. Just as a holiday should be!

It was a great holiday, so thank you Darrin. Sxxxx