I have become somewhat of an infrequent blogger this year. It's all down to an unfortunate combination of being busy, being ill and honestly not being arsed. Also Twitter is so much easier. Random thoughts, 140 characters or less, job done.
I've even taken a week or so off Facebook such has been my apathy towards communicating with the outside world. And the strange thing is that I feel guilty about it; that I'm letting down all the people I befriended solely to send and receive game requests for the likes of The Sims Social, Sim City Social and Bejeweled Blitz. I'd like the games a lot more without the social aspect but apparently that's the whole point of Facebook so there's no avoiding it.
I refuse to spend actual money on those games though. What a rip off! I looked out of curiosity one time and it was actually the equivalent of a couple of real life US dollars to buy a pixel sofa or some such frivolous item on The Sims Social. Some people must have more money than sense. I'll happily relieve them of it if they like.
But anyway, I have been feeling very lethargic and indifferent of late. I think perhaps having medical problems on and off for almost a year now has maybe taken its toll - I finally got the dubious honour of a rare diagnosis for the excruciating pain in my hips but alas there is no treatment except rest and patience, neither of which I am particularly good at. I just feel very run down and ready to hibernate. Unfortunately with a full time job to hold down and with the expense of Christmas on the horizon, hibernation just isn't going to happen.
Happily though, I do get a bit of a break soon. After our amazing east coast USA trip in February, I hadn't imagined the Yorkshireman and I would get another proper holiday this year. We'd been considering a weekend break in Edinburgh, maybe sometime in November to coincide with our anniversary (10 years since we met, 5 years since we got engaged, 3 years since we got married) and because the Yorkshireman has never been there, but I figured that would be it really.
However the idea of a weekend break in Edinburgh turned into a train trip down Great Britain, stopping at various places en route. That then turned into a cross-channel Eurostar break, taking in Edinburgh, London and either Brussels or Paris. Then the search for ultimate destinations expanded a bit deeper into Europe. And a bit further. And then some more. Eventually we realised there are a whole lot of places out there we'd like to visit and we only had limited time and funds.
Meanwhile I had simultaneously come across a newspaper ad for a Mediterranean cruise around the same time. I ran it past the Yorkshireman and whilst he wasn't very keen on that specific itinerary, the idea of a cruise was intriguing. We liked the idea of hitting a lot of different cities in a relatively short timeframe, but if we did it ourselves we would have spent all our time and money on trains or planes or buses. A cruise was essentially a floating hotel with food and board provided, but also your form of transportation. They don't have cocktails and hot tubs on National Rail, let me tell you.
So we did a bit more digging and actually found a complete bargain which fitted with the dates we wanted and had a great itinerary. We're paying less for an 11 night full board cruise around the med than we've paid for a half board hotel room for a week in Spain. Granted we also had to pay airfares to get to Barcelona, where the cruise ship sails from, but it still worked out at an unbeatable price for the experience. The ship we're going on gets something like 92% positive reviews and the ports of call look fantastic. After 9 years of studying Latin at school, I actually get to see Italy for the first time. I can't wait!
So although it might all be tough going at the minute I am so happy that there's another amazing experience just around the corner to look forward to. Also that I get to spend some quality time with the Yorkshireman. When you're both working full time and then spending your spare time on housework and shopping and family commitments and sports games and social occasions, there's very little time to just "be" these days. It will be really lovely to just relax and discover new things together away from the usual daily grind. Not long to wait now. Plus it'll finally give me something to blog about!
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