Getting away from it all

While some people prefer to end the year on holidays, I prefer to begin the year on rest. To rewrite my budget, recharge and set some goals and projects.

It's been 17 blissful days, spent mostly disconnected and for the first time in a while I did not access my work email. I was close, but I didn't.

I saw the above picture online yesterday and it absolutely described my actions. Things were hard and I ran away. And you know that's not always a bad thing. I didn't sleep much at all I'm afraid, but I felt so rested. I swam for hours each day, and hiked and walked in the stifling heat. My muscles hurt for the first time in ages, but my head didn't. I tried to absorb my surroundings. When your days are centred around reading, writing, swimming, walking and thinking, it's a bit hard to want it to end even if you're physically exhausted. Maybe the physical activities helped me to rest my mind.

I did my very best to pack light. I hadn't done any shopping leading up to summer, so packed the small selection of my old colourful favourites and took off. My tip is to always take about half of what you think you need. Being bogged down by things on holidays is no fun.

Things didn't get off to a great start due to being rushed to the airport and a few things I thought I couldn't live without we're left behind (Moroccan oil and GHD I'm looking st you), but you know what, I managed just fine.

At least my carry on was perfect - Sugar lip balm, Aesop hand cream, a big scarf to fight off the cold climate control, Tripit app updated and synced, new book to read and eye drops.