The week before we set sail on our Caribbean cruise was my birthday week. We had a couple of wonderful evenings out for dinner with friends, the second also celebrating the besties birthday. We did over indulge a little, but you only have one birthday a year.
Despite celebrations I managed to make a start on my 2019 personal care plan, and redeemed ourselves a little with a lovely 3 mile walk along the promenade of Bexhill-On-Sea, with my brother & sister in law. Nice bit of exercise and catch up, followed by a little spot of healthy lunch.
Being half term we spent some quality time with the Grandkids. The car had to go into the garage for a software update 🙄
While we were waiting we 
popped along to the Big Red Bus cafe for brunch with the youngest boys who,
after a plate of their favourite sausage and chips, had fun in the play area.
I had a lovely day on my actual birthday just chilling at home, with visits from friends and family. Ending with a nice dinner & glass of wine with my girls and son in law.
Of course there was also time during the week, for a bit of pampering, having my nails painted, and hair cut ready for my holidays. But the pampering piece de resistance was a fabulous spa day with some girlfriends 👯. It was a bit of an early start after birthday celebrations the night before, but fortunately someone else volunteered to drive.
At 8am the girlie wagon arrived and I climbed aboard to join my three pink buddies. Sat Nav programmed, we were off for a morning of relaxation and chatter.
After coffee and a danish we spent an embarrasing 10 minutes trying to work out how to secure the lockers, 🤪 eventually seeking guidance from a fellow user.
Still nattering we moved between the heat of the sauna, to a swim in the pool, a dip in the jacuzzi and into the steam room.
Enjoying the company and catching up without the interruptions of our menfolk, we spent a lovely three hours of girlie chat, before heading back to battle with the lockers and retrieve our clothes.
Chilled and relaxed, a spot of lunch in the bar brought more laughter as we requested butter with our bread rolls and after two plates arrived from the kitchen we had enough to spread a whole loaf of bread!
As we headed home, the banter and laughter continuing, I was feeling very refreshed, ready and excited about our forthcoming trip.
Now three weeks later,we are reaching the end of our cruise, and I can reflect that we have kept up the walking whilst we’ve spent time sightseeing, which in turn, alongside the overnight movement of the ship, has given us some lovely nights sleep. We have had lots of time to bask in the sunshine topping up the vitamin D levels and slipping off into another world in the depths of a couple of books. The only thing we’ve lapsed on is eating and drinking well, but it would be rude not to enjoy two weeks all inclusive food and drink.
We’ve had a fabulous couple of weeks of great fun and laughter with good friends. We are bronzed, happy, relaxed and ready to enjoy the rest of another exciting year of retirement.