Holiday blog special;
Packing for a holiday can be a little bit overwhelming. Especially if you choose to travel hand luggage only, which most of the time I do.
Getting enough supplies for my stoma, sun screen, hair, face and body needs is a big task, but let’s not get carried away though, I’m packing for a holiday, not being drafted to war.
It’s a pain to need to carry so much stoma stuff but it’s worth it, to feel confident and comfortable to fly away. It’s mainly the liquid allowance that is the sticking point for me.
(I believe there is something people with stomas can do to ask for extra allowance on board, but I’ve never tried. I am looking into it for my business trip to Athens in May. As I will be flying solo, which means I can’t pack my overspill liquid in my travel companion’s bags).
What I take with me? Just larger amounts of what I take out on any day I leave the house really;
Release spray
Stoma bags
Scissors
Dry wipes
Disposing bags
Room spray
Perfume to add to room spray
Bags and spray wise I always take double what I think I’ll need now, I packed too few on one holiday and it really restricted my ability to join in with my family. As I had to be cautious about using them.
I decided to do something a little different this holiday.
My dad has just had a load of skin cancer cut out of his head, the wound was so deep his skull was exposed. I felt for him, but also, it terrified me, and all of us who have ever burned in the sun.
I love the sun, and in small doses we actually need the sun for vitamin D.
But I have no wish for exposure to it to come back and bite me on the arse, or anywhere else for that matter, later down the line.
So, I decided to give up on sun baking. Not that I was into it in a big way, after having some dodgy moles cut out last year anyway. but I wanted to have a lovely tan, without having to lay there and bake in the sun.
Enter Ellie, my spray tan goddess!
I’ve never had a spray tan before, I’ve never been that naked and exposed standing in front of someone before.
But Ellie made me feel so comfortable and confident it was easy peasy. I didn’t actually give it a thought until I got back in my car. And I was so nervous about going too.
I arrived on holiday, far browner than I’ve ever come home from a holiday before!
I don’t tan evenly in the sun. I’m sure I’m made of left overs, like a patch work quilt. I’m never just lovely and brown all over. But with a spray tan I am!
No idea why I didn’t think of it before. But I will be definitely doing it again.
It looked so good. I looked so good. To achieve this look with the sun I’d need at least 3 weeks continuous sun exposure. So, no thank you.
Ellie is on instagram if you’re local to me and want the best spray tan in the area;
bare_faced __
I looked fabulous for my flight, like I was coming back, rather than going.
All I needed to do to look after it, is use body lotion at night, and sun screen in the day, factor 30 on my body, 50 on my face.
I did go out in the sun, but not for long, and covered in sunscreen.
Trousers and jacket from M&S, top from , Shoes from Louis Vuitton
I felt I looked the best I’ve ever looked to be honest. Without having to risk sun damage.
Bikini from Hunza G
Golden, and healthy looking. With less risk.
Ok, so it wears off over time. But it lasted for about 7 days, and by that time I’d had enough time in the sun to go a nice enough colour anyway. Not the deep tan of the fake tan, but good enough.
Top from French Connection, Jeans from M&S, Shoes from Hermes, Bag from Ralph Lauren.
I had said we wouldn’t need to go shopping this trip. But then Chris had to go to work (work from home, but Spain home) for 3 days.
He has a back injury which causes him a lot of pain. So I suggested we set up a little home office, so he’s not sitting hunched over the dining room table for 3 days. I sound very caring, I’m not, mostly I didn’t want him taking up space at the dining room table for 3 days, interrupting my table scaping, so setting up an office in the spare room worked out well for both of us.
perfección!
Dress from Scamp and Dude, Shoes from Gina, Bag from Jimmy Choo
While Chris worked in the days, I pottered about, clearing the house of crap that has accumulated over the 24 years of owning the house. Then we headed out in the evenings. It was really good, despite Chris having to work.
I love holidaying at our house. It’s tiny and perfect in every way to me.
And it’s only a 10 minute drive to my favourite ice cream shop in the world.
Top from Burberry, Shorts from Tesco, Shoes from Chloe.
If I’m here, I’m likely to be found here.🍦
Continuing our journey of portion control and no UPFs, I cooked most of the time we were away this time. Which in 24 years is pretty much a first.
Bearing in mind the oven hasn’t worked in about 15 years, and is solely used for storage, I made full use of the hob and air fryer to cook some amazing meals.
Weirdly, making the change, has changed our desire for the food we eat and want.
We both prefer the freshness and flavours of eating healthy foods.
And in Spain there is an added level to that because the food is by far, far superior to the taste of “fresh” produce at home.
Not sure if you can tell, but I lost my photographer for 3 days this trip…
…and he’s back! Normal service can resume. :)
I put a post on my social media saying I’d spent the day cleaning and clearing the house and that the big thing that day was a trip to the bins.
And one of my friends thought this jumper actually said Bin Day. And I’ve never wanted something so much in my life!
Clothes for doing the cleaning and the bins would be awesomeness!! Hahaha.
“Sunday” top from Primark, Shorts from Tesco.
And then we come to the best bit of the holiday, a holiday, within a holiday.
We love our house, but we also like to travel round and see other parts of Spain.
We’ve been to Girona, Benidorm (for a drive through it), Madrid, Valencia, Granada, and now Seville!
And my favourite so far isssss…Seville!
It’s utterly amazing! I was so taken by it.
Dress from Nobody’s Child at M&S.
I was just about to buy the dress below, from Me&Em, when I happened across this one in Marks. It was a no brainer.
£79 as opposed to the £175 from Me&Em. I love Me&Em, I have quite a few dresses from them. But the Nobody’s Child dress flattered my figure more.
Seville is a must if you’ve not been.
It’s utterly amazing! We were blown away!
It helped of course, that when we arrived the hotel upgraded us to a suite for nothing. Just because they wanted to. And it was honestly the most sensational experience.
We’ve stayed in some of the most amazing hotels in the world, 5 star, top class. But the decor in this hotel suite was the best I’ve ever seen.
First of all, you open the door to the suite. And rather than open into the room, it opens on to a sun terrace that is solely for your use.
Then you go into the rooms and they are incredible!
The upgrade to the suite was just the beginning of falling in love with this city. If you’ve been then you know.
It’s so clean, and friendly, we’ve always found Spanish people very friendly and welcoming anyway, but here they are incredibly friendly.
I can’t speak Spanish, I am fully aware how awful that is. I try, but fail mostly. But I take full responsibility for it. I don’t ever think or feel it’s anyone’s problem but mine.
I use Google translate and the smattering of words I do know and that usually helps.
I find if you make the effort, other people will too, and will try and accommodate and help you. I found this especially useful in a pharmacy in Seville.
I foolishly forgot to pack the little black bin bags for disposing my used stoma bags in. I thought it’d be no problem, I’d just buy some nappy sacks, same same.
But I couldn’t find any in any shops. I then used Google translate to ask for nappy sacks. And that’s when we found out they are banned in Spain for eco reasons.
Which then put me in a bit of a pickle. So I then used Google translate to ask for bags to dispose of stoma bags in.
She panicked at first, because she thought I wanted actual stoma bags. Which as most stoma users know, are not available to buy over the counter in any shops or pharmacies. Which drives me mad, but that’s a story for another day.
Anyway once I explained I only needed the bin bags, she said it wasn’t possible to buy any, but she very kindly gave me a couple tiny shopping bags to use.
I was a bit concerned, because, although it was kind of her, they just weren’t going to be enough for our stay, especially in such a beautiful suite. I like to quadruple, quintuple my used bags. I prefer the room not to smell of my waste if I can possibly help it.
Anyway, I had a final thought, what about dog poo bags? Do they still sell them? So we popped to a supermarket and thankfully they do them. Which meant I could bag and bag to my hearts content. I appreciate it’s not terribly eco friendly, but the room stinking of a used stoma bag isn’t terribly appealing either.
Having a colostomy isn’t a problem for me. I find my life has been made a lot easier. One major concern I had pre op, was the fear that I would smell, I was very ignorant.
I don’t smell. In fact, any wind I pass goes straight into a filtered sealed container. So I smell less than those with bumholes as it happens. Which isn’t the expectation of others when I say I have a colostomy.
But on changing my bag, the waste in it has been sitting there for 24 hours most of the time. Which does smell, this is the only time that I do.
(unless I’ve had a rare bag failure or filter failure) ~ I do not smell.
We arrived in Seville early enough for a spot of shopping, so after some lunch, we headed out to have a look around. It’s a very walkable city. Much like Venice or Rome. It’s nicely designed, and easy to get around.
I headed to Mango, the clothing store, for their Victoria Beckham collaboration. Which wasn’t terribly fruitful for me, as the cheeky bitch has only gone up to a size 12 (uk, so size 8 us) the cheek of it!
There were other issues too. The finishing on some of the designs were terrible, with bubbling on the fabrics. I didn’t expect the collab to be to the standard of her collection that sells for hundreds and hundreds of pounds more. But I did expect to be on a par with Mangos usual standard.
I had seen a couple of things I liked the look of online. Three were no good due to my general size, and boob size.
But I did get the shirt I wanted. And a little evening bag, which was super cute. I’m off to a black tie event this week, in an old dress so it’s nice to have something new to give it a new look.
Then, in the evening Chris had arranged to go to a tourist attraction near by, actually, everything felt pretty much nearby, we walked everywhere.
He surprised me with sunset tickets to Setas of Seville. A beautiful modern art installation (which might look shockingly out of place to some, in such an old and elegant city), but it is spectacular, and I feel it works perfectly with the contrast of old and new.
Sunset is peak viewing, so even if you’ve booked tickets for a set time, get there well beforehand and start queuing or you’ll miss the show.
A lot of people who had booked for sunset missed actual sunset because the people who had booked prior time slots stayed longer than their time allowed.
We got lucky, as we’re Brits, so we queue up early, whether we need to or not ~ other nationalities take note hahahah.
We had such a lovely evening. Then we headed back to the hotel quite late. But we were a bit peckish, so we decided to order tapas.
We’ve never had tapas before, shock horror!! How is that possible?!
Well, we like Indian food, so that’s generally what we would go for. Yes, even in Spain.
We love paella and pil pil prawns, fried baby squid etc. but tapas hasn’t really appealed.
But we are now converted. We loved it!
We ordered and ordered and ordered.
*My dress for the day ahead’s outing was from Me&Em.
I absolutely love it. I had to have 5 inches taken off the bottom, and the front v sewn up quite a bit because it’s made for tall, small boobed, perky girls, and I am none of the above.
But with the aid of a very nice seamstress called Jane I was able to make it work.
The following day, wearing my new favourite dress, Chris had booked us a one to one tour guide. Well, one to two in this case.
Juan met us at 10.30, and walked us through the sites and sights of Seville for the rest of the day.
I really enjoy a personal tour, because I lose interest very quickly, I have the attention span of a goldfish, so it’s easier to learn more on an individual basis.
He was fabulous! Would recommend! 10 out of 10.
We toured the Jewish quarter, with its narrow cobbled streets and beautiful buildings, we had a tour of the cathedral, which is beautiful and absolutely massive, full to the brim with incredibly beautiful things.
I just find churches hard to fathom, when Jesus was such a humble man, with few possessions, then you walk into a church full of extraordinary and expensive artefacts and art, and I wonder how many people it would feed, clothe and shelter if they were sold. To me it makes no sense. But to each their own.
The cathedral has a tower, which we decided to climb. We’re not particularly sporty, so this sort of thing is out of character for us. But since losing weight, we have felt more inclined to exercise. And very handily the way up is a continual spiral slope, rather than steps. Which is a lot easier to do. The views were worth the effort.
We toured Plaza de España, which is utterly gorgeous! You will be blown away. It’s honestly a show stopper.
Quick history lesson; It was built for the exhibition of Seville in 1929, they started the build in 1914. And because Spain didn’t take part in world war 1 or 2 (not really a world war if all the world wasn’t actually at it. And by the by, interestingly, the only reason the Spanish Flu was called the Spanish flu, wasn’t because it started there, it was actually because Spain wasn’t at war and didn’t have any press restrictions on reporting world events. So they covered the news of the flu, whereas other countries had put a news black out on it so as not to upset people already going through enough shit with world war 1)….anyway, my meandering ramblings about wars and flu, was to say, that because Spain didn’t go to war, there has been no damage to buildings, and anything built for the expo is still standing.
You will not be disappointed with Sevillian architecture. It’s also the cleanest, safest feeling city I’ve ever visited. I wore my watch and jewellery, and didn’t once feel exposed or uncomfortable, day or night.
I’m sure pick pockets are about, as they are everywhere, but it’s very safe feeling. Which is a lovely treat.
Also if you like opera, there are a lot of places dotted around that crop up in Carmen, and The Barber of Seville.
It’s a city that has something for everyone.
The city is full of orange trees too, but they are a bitter variety, for use in marmalade and cosmetics.
We spent a lot of time at Alcázar of Seville. Which was what I had wanted to go for to start with.
I love art deco architecture, art and design. And I absolutely love Moorish / Muslim, Hindu and Sikh architecture and style.
From the lavish buildings to sensational jewels.
I have visited some of the most incredible Muslim buildings in the world. Obviously the Taj Mahal being the most famous and most beautiful. But the Taj is not a palace, it never was a palace. It is a mausoleum. It was built solely to house the Shah’s favourite dead wife’s body.
So it doesn’t have the rooms to show how they lived, because it was never lived in.
But Alhambra palace in Granada was built for a living king. If it’s a style you’re also into it’s a must!
And Alcazar of Seville was built by a king, who happened to love the design of Alhambra, and was friends with the king there,he then borrowed his architect and architectural style from him.
Which leaves me with many options to view my favourite architectural styles.
Alcazar is smaller than Alhambra, but it’s still just as beautiful. It is stunning. The palace is actually still one of the residences of the king and queen of Spain now. How lucky for them. What a place to call home.
The gardens are beautiful. A sight to behold. I love everything about the style. I find it very restful and satisfying. Maybe it’s the geometric shapes, or the texture or the safety in the symmetry that I love.
After the tour ended we stayed in the Alcazar. For more sightseeing. Then once we finished there we headed back to the hotel for a rest.
We went through one of the main squares, where all the horse and carriage ride vendors stand. And Chris shocked me by offering to take me on a ride.
Chris hates horses, he’s allergic to them, so that doesn’t help.
But these horses are so clean and well cared for they don’t smell at all.
Not like the ones in some cities.
So that’s what we did. A romantic carriage ride round Seville.
I asked the man how long it would be and he said “about half an hour, depending on traffic”
Which made me laugh, but I understood what he meant when he took us off for a ride, and part of it was on a very main road through the city. It was like being on the A12 on a horse and cart. Hahaha
The price he quoted was €45 which sounded ridiculously good value, especially as the ride was amazing and quite long. We assumed he would say that it was €45 each way by the time we got back, so we were prepared to make a fuss if he asked for €90.
But we got back, after a fabulous tour, and the price was indeed €45
An absolute bargain! Stick it on your list. :)
This balcony features in Carmen, somewhere. I’ve not seen it so I don’t know. I’ve never seen any opera.
Side note; Chris looked the best he’s ever looked, apart from when I first met him and he looked like a tanned Greek god. Having been laid off at the beginning of summer, and not finding work till late September. Back then he was at the gym twice a day and holidaying plentifully.
He’s looking like that Chris again now, since he joined me on the ban on UPFs and eating more consciously. And quite honestly I followed him round perving on him all day. He looks finnnnnnne hubba hubba hubs :)
We then headed to dinner, deciding on tapas, our new found adventure.
Which was again fantastic!
Then went back to the hotel to find they had gifted us a soft toy donkey, he was left on our bed to say thank you for our stay.
Honestly this hotel was magical and magnificent! The room is well over a €1000 a night.
We didn’t pay anything near that, we got upgraded to the suite for free. I have never felt so lucky. :)
The next day it had rained heavily overnight, so we didn’t rush to get out of bed. We ordered breakfast to the room. And took our time to start the day.
We then headed out to walk to parts of the city we hadn’t covered before, over near Triana.
We then walked to the Portuguese embassy, as we had spotted the day before that it was having an open day/ craft fair.
I bought some beautiful plates, some for Spain home, some for England home.
And Chris bought a pastel de nata, his favourite cake, a Portuguese specialty.
We had a spot of lunch and then took a leisurely drive home. The roads are so well maintained and smooth, there is so little traffic on them, that I even took a turn to drive for an hour or so, and let Chris shut off for a bit. Would I do that in England? Or anywhere else come to that? Nope! Not a chance, well, I had to when he couldn’t drive with his broken arm, but in general absolutely not.
The roads of England are not for the faint hearted, the pot holes are like ravines, they give me anxiety. I’ve been down a few lately and the noise the car makes is excruciating.
I do not like driving at home. I drive two cars, plus occasionally Chris’s car as well and none of them are designed for the state of our roads, I think I’d need a Sherman tank to feel safe.
I was made for the smooth tarmac of Spain.
To say this trip was a roaring success is an understatement. It was exceptional. Seville is my new favourite European city break. And I love Europe, I am a proud European. I’ve visited many places and love them for many and various different reasons. But Seville tops the list overall.
It’s sedate and beautiful. And very Safe. I can’t emphasise enough how calm and confident you feel there. It is a well loved and well cared for city by its residents and tourists alike.
My table scaping made it safely back to Spain house. And the other bits landed safely back to England house with us too.
Outfit of the day:
Top from Ralph Lauren, trousers from M&S, Shoes from Hermes, although I had to swap to my LV trainers as the ground was still damp from the overnight rain.
We stopped at Nobu for drinks. To break up the day.
Then it was time to head home…
It was only four and a half hours door to door, including a wee stop.
After our food fest in Seville it was back to healthy eating. Which simply isn’t a chore because it tastes so good.
A nights sleep, a re pack of the bags, and we headed to the airport after our grand adventure.
Things I know for next time;
Get a spray tan. Looks a treat on holiday.
Pack insect repellent bracelets, I bought these just before this trip and they worked a treat. No bites this time. And I am a delicacy to most insects.
And contact the airport and airlines to enquire about liquid allowance increase. I don’t need any other special assistance or anything, I just need extra allowance of the liquid quota.
Much love, keep well.
Xx