Okay, so I’m not going to write my whole blog in Welsh, but I thought it was an appropriate place to start.
Chris and I headed off for a little weekend getaway last week.
We’d booked to go to Portmeirion in north Wales. It’s one of our favourite places in the world.
I first heard about it about 30 odd years ago. I first visited, for the day in September 2020.
We didn’t fancy all the potential hassle of the only just lifted lockdown flying so we decided to rediscover the UK.
We had so many fabulous little escapes that year.
In 2020, with flying away off the menu we decided to head to Wales to visit Portmeirion, it just felt like the perfect time.
We booked a dog friendly lodge, and we looked forward to an adventure with me, him and Pepper, our borderline insane Miniature Schnauzer (a difficult and emotionally unbalanced little lady ~ well they do say dogs are like their owners).
Anyway, my darling angel upped and died 2 weeks before the trip, which ripped my heart in two, and really the last thing I wanted was a holiday we’d booked solely for her benefit.
But we both agreed that maybe it would be a good idea to take our minds off it all. It was a very traumatic time.
So we arrived at the “lodge” to find it was a nasty musty shed in a field. It made me laugh out loud. This was bleak, peak bleak. The irony was not lost on me.
We’d have come straight home had it not been for the fact that Chris had booked tickets to visit Portmeirion on the Friday, this was Wednesday.
We’d come this far so we decided to stick with it and carry on…although it is worth mentioning, I was not keeping calm.
So Friday came and at last we headed to Portmeirion.
It’s a funny place, a place that causes a great deal of confusion, I myself was pretty in the dark about what it is and how it works.
Let me try and explain it to the lay person.
It’s a created Italianate style village perched on the coast of north Wales.
It was the brain child of a rather eccentric man, who scoured the UK for an island at first to build his dream.
But when he was offered the opportunity to create it on this peninsula he jumped at the chance.
He bought the land and got to work. Some say that he based it on Portofino, but it’s not strictly true, it’s based on a combination of inspirations from all of his travels.
It’s not inhabited by permanent residents, it’s all privately owned, and it’s all one giant hotel resort.
There are two main hotel buildings. And then the rest of the village is made up of hotel rooms and suites. With an assortment of restaurants and bars on the ground floors.
I didn’t know this on our first visit. I thought it was just a model village, and that they were just fake facades of buildings.
Chris went into one of the bars to get us some lunch and they asked if he was a resident of the hotel, to which he asked what they meant.
He then excitedly came out and imparted this new found knowledge to me, he then went online and booked us in for a long weekend for the following month.
Each building you see in the photos is a hotel rooms, or suite.
We’ve visited every year since 2020. So we’ve stayed in quite a few different rooms now. But this visit was my favourite room wise.
There is one that has alluded me, it’s a suite called White Horses, and it’s apparently haunted. Chris is apparently not into the idea of spending all that money, and then having to go sleep in the car because I’ve freaked out in the middle of the night 🫣😂…as if I would!! 😬
This time we stayed in Salutation Suite. The view from the living room speaks for itself.
The rooms are quaint and comfortable, but not fancy. It’s a unique place, rather than a bouji chic place.
(That said, the beds and bedding are incredibly cosy and dreamy…pun intended).
I love how Portmeirion came about. I love those old fashioned wacky eccentric people, with their madcap schemes and shenanigans. Where have they all gone?
Now we’re over run with narcissistic, megalomaniac self serving billionaires, and they lack the class, and whimsy of old school eccentrics.
Bring back the whimsy, and build magical lands🙏🏼
We were meant to be driving down to Wales on the Friday morning, but I suggested to Chris that we head down Thursday night, stay somewhere near the border and then head to Portmeirion early Friday morning to maximise our weekend.
It’s about a 5 and a half hour drive in total. It’s still about an hour and ¾ from the English/Welsh border.
So that’s what we did. We booked a night in a Premier Inn. Little bit of info about me. I hadn’t ever stayed in a hotel until I was 19, we were a family of tent campers.
So I can stay anywhere from 5 star resorts to budget hotels, as long as the room isn’t stinky, and the bed’s comfy, because I don’t want to tent camp again. I have, many times, the boys loved it as children, but it’s not for me now. I love creature comforts. I’m made for the soft life. 🤩
I really like a Premier Inns, not an ad, just an observation, the bed was super comfortable and the duvet was heaven.
(This blog was started by me as a dressing with a stoma blog, so as always this is what I wore while I just enjoyed life)
Top and Shoes from Ralph Lauren, culottes from M&S.
I truly believed that dressing well was not going to be possible once I had the stoma surgery. Well, it turns out, if you love life, and love clothes, and you experiment it’s all going to be okay.
I always get excited when I see this sign, Wales is one of my happy places.
Unfortunately for me I got a cold on Friday. It came on so quickly it was like flicking a switch.
I know, I know, there was me last week warning people to avoid germs, and I didn’t even take my own advice and manage it myself.
I got up, I felt absolutely fine ~ and then I was struck. No warning whatsoever.
It did put a dampener on the trip but Chris was very kind and very generous, and reassured me that it’s a place we love to go to specifically do absolutely nothing.
So really nothing was ruined, nothing was different to any other time we’ve been, I just felt unwell that’s all.
Jumper from Barbour, Jeans from Topshop, Coat from Holland Cooper, Boots from Dubarry, Hat from Laird’s of London.
Keep in mind, every building you see is accommodation of some kind.
Hotel rooms, suites and some larger self catering apartments too.
It’s the most beautiful, quaint place. It’s feels happy, it feels special and inviting, it has a really good atmosphere.
It does help that every time we’ve been there the sun has shone. One time we went in June and they were having a heat wave. We could have easily been somewhere equally fabulous in Italy.
It’s picture perfect and picturesque…
We had a few hours to roam the resort before our room was ready. But oh boy! Once it was I was so happy!
Chris hadn’t mentioned what suite he’d booked, so I was absolutely delighted to find it was this one, overlooking the main square.
A view of the village and the sea. It could not have been better, especially as it had the balcony and a patio for sitting outside.
The weather was glorious.
I was just about getting through the days. Though had I known there was a room service option we’d have stayed in, and not got dressed up for dinner.
But I only found that out on the last day.
Top from Me&Em, Trousers from Theory, Shoes from Maje.
These are the trousers I was moaning about the price of a few weeks ago.
They were so expensive for such a mundane looking item. But they are the comfiest, most flattering trousers I own.
They look like M&S, but priced like Prada! 😂
I’m pained to say it but they were worth the investment for the comfort alone, when you have to dress for a stoma it’s so hard to find perfect clothes. These tick every possible box, they feel so good on, and they look so good I think, it’s actually aggravating me. 😂
I was feeling proper ropey by this point, but I tried to keep my spirits up because I didn’t want to bring the trip down.
Exhibit A…
Full of snot and whimsy…
We stayed at the restaurant for the briefest possible time, I didn’t want anyone to catch anything from me.
I kept my distance as much as possible and ate quickly.
Saturday brought new misery. Although in fairness my sleep schedule throughout this virus had been fabulous! Which is a bit surprising. God bless Otrivine!
Saturday I got up, showered and dressed, and headed for breakfast and then a brisk beach walk.
The beach at Portmeirion is one of my favourite spots. It’s miles and miles of sand (my heaven, Chris’s hell).
We walked pretty far (for us).
Chris was right really, we didn’t actually do anything different on this trip.
We keep ourselves to ourselves most places we go anyway. So only going out for food, a nice but brief walk (that’s all we want to do anyway. We weren’t made for hikes. We class our walk around the perimeter of the resort a hike…it isn’t…but it feels very audaciously outdoorsy to us).
We’re more comfortable with long romantic walks to Selfridges than the great outdoors.
Top from Intimissimi, scarf from Maje, Jeans from Topshop, Boots from Dubarry.
The food is exceptional in the resort. Really good quality. Lots of local produce. You can tell a lot of care has gone into it.
I am being incredibly paranoid and cautious about eggs in restaurants currently. There is a Europe wide salmonella outbreak. I always assumed that it wouldn’t affect us here because we have very high standard certified salmonella free eggs in supermarkets. What I didn’t know was that it’s a voluntary scheme to start with, and to cut costs some restaurants import eggs from Europe.
I absolutely do not want salmonella, so I’ve stopped having eggs out and about.
I buy the lion marked safe ones from Sainsbury’s etc.
Chris mentioned that he wanted poached eggs so I went to the hotel reception and asked the lady the origin of the eggs they serve.
She was horrified that I’d think they’d buy anything but good quality farm assured local Welsh eggs. But she reassured me they were absolutely fine, I’m still nervous, but I did feel better that I had checked.
A friend is recovering from egg based salmonella poisoning right now. Bless she was so very very sick with it. I do not want to take any risks.
The attention to detail is amazing there, I was surprised and impressed that they had fresh blueberries and raspberries on the buffet, it doesn’t happen very often. In a lot of hotels it’s all catering cans of tinned peaches and mixed fruit.
I was able to eat my normal breakfast fare. Which felt very comforting and familiar.
Have you ever heard the saying “feed a cold, starve a fever”?
Well my body took that literally because I didn’t stop eating the whole time we were away, way way more than I usually eat these days.
I didn’t fight it, I just went with what my body was asking for, it clearly needed it for a reason. And who am I to deny her 🤩.
I had excellent training of how to get through cancer treatment illness.
Sam was unfortunately diagnosed with cancer six months before me, and due to the fact he was a child he was given a dedicated dietician to get him through his treatment the best way possible.
Not ideal I grant you, but I was able to use what I learned from his experience to get me through mine.
Basically, at any and all times possible, just throw fat and calories down your throat, so I did. At one point I gained weight through chemo and radio…bear in mind at no point was I on steroids. This was just Mcvities ginger nut biscuit (cookies) weight! 😂🤩
I felt so nauseous all the time that eating was tricky, but I made a very clear point to get food in whenever I possibly could.
It worked a treat, I’m here still!
So whenever I get sick now with anything, I just apply the same energy as before.
Although if, god forbid I was going through chemo and radio again I’d ideally add in lots of nutrient dense fabulous foods (because I know more about them now), but if all I fancied was crisps, that’s what I’d eat…and I’d most definitely add exercise and weight training in.
Muscle mass is a huge factor in survival in general. It’s vital in fact for all of us.
I did the most cringey thing. I keep cracking up even now!
I actually gave myself the ick, about myself! 😂
We were chatting to a waiter as he seated us, he said “Do you do yoga ma’am?”
And for reasons unknown, I thought he thought I looked good for my age, so I said “No, but I go to the gym 3 times a week”
And he looked a little perplexed and said “….Oh, it’s just you are wearing Om on your necklace”
He didn’t think I looked fab at all!! Why the fuck would he indeed!!
He has no idea what I looked like in the post pandemic years, where I’d spent the majority of my time eating cake, and he doesn’t know that I set out to change my ways 3 years ago, and therefore he has absolutely no frame of reference that I look a lot better now.
He was just curious about my necklace!!
There’s me thinking I’m looking 🔥 and telling him I go to the gym regularly 😬🫣😶🌫️🤣🤣
Oh my god!! The cringe!! I wanted to world to swallow me whole! I’m still cringing about it and laughing about it now! 😂
I tried to compose myself and explained that although I do enjoy yoga every now and then, the reason I bought the pendant is because I love India, and it makes me feel at peace when I remember being there.
It also reminds me to take time to reflect and try to remember to chant daily in an effort to calm my central nervous system.
A little hum and self reflection can’t hurt, seeing as I’m such a highly strung neurotic wreck of a creature.
It was nice to have a chat with him about India though, he was very surprised by our travels and pleased with our love of it.
*Om is the most sacred syllable, symbol, and mantra in Indian religions, representing the primordial vibration of the universe and the essence of all existence. Originating thousands of years ago in the ancient Sanskrit Vedic texts, it signifies the ultimate reality, pure consciousness, and the divine.
Even a good Om isn’t going to salve this cringe fest though! What was I thinking?!
Did I think I’d woken up and was suddenly giving Claudia Schiffer a run for her money or something 🫣😬🤣🤣🤣
There was an Om pendant I saw in Jaipur but I didn’t buy it, and regretted it ever since. Then a few months ago I saw this come up on an instagram ad for Cartier and I thought it was spookily exactly what I was looking for, it seemed so odd as I’d never mentioned it out loud before., I know phones listen to us so it can send targeted ads, but have they developed a thought one now!?
It was meant to be. 🕉️🙏🏼
The beach goes for miles, and we had the entire thing to ourselves…
I couldn’t have been happier, even though I felt rough, this beach walk felt magical.
(Probably not to Chris though as he has a phobia of sand).
Little point of interest. In the 1960s there was one 17 episode series called The Prisoner.
It was filmed on location at Portmeirion. And all these years later people are still obsessed with it.
They have whole weekends here dedicated to it.
This was a smaller group of them at the weekend. They dress up like the characters. It might seem a bit odd, but I guess it’s not that much different to wearing a football shirt.
It’s about finding comfort in your tribe, and that’s really important. Human connection is the key to happiness.
I know plenty of people who wear net skirts in New York City, and live out their Carrie Bradshaw dreams. TV can play a really important role in our lives, it bonds us, it gives us a sense of belonging.
Bless them though, they didn’t have enough people to recreate a scene from the show that has human chess pieces, they were shouting out to other visitors to see if anyone wanted to join them…I told Chris to pretend we don’t speak English, and we slunk away.
I’ve never seen The Prisoner, so I wouldn’t have been any help.
Once we’d had a fab breakfast and and a really good walk we headed back to the room and I made a cosy bed on the sofa and watched the world according to Portmeirion go by out the window.
And in all honesty, I would have probably done exactly this, cold or not.
It’s our favourite place to chill and do nothing.
To answer the question, if it were ever asked do I look good for my age…no, not really and especially not this weekend 🫣😂😂
Carrying on the theme of feed a cold, Chris got us a take away cream tea. We ate an extraordinary amount of cream teas while we were there.
I perked up enough to pop out for a quick dinner, but the same routine. A quick in and out.
Top from Intimissimi, Trousers from Me&Em, Shoes from Ralph Lauren.
We ate in record time and headed back to the room.
The room was a main character of the whole weekend, but then, it always is here. They are the main event.
Top from Maje, Jeans from Levi, Shoes from Hermes.
Our final morning before heading off back home was spent taking in the breathtaking scenery this area has to offer.
It’s such a spectacular place. It’s completely understandable why he chose this spot to build his Narnia.
I miss this view.
My dreams are, if I won the lottery or something, to live in central London in a 2 bed flat with a balcony, and or, depending on the win, a place with views like this, although with not another house in sight.
A dream for another day, and it would probably be a good idea to start playing the lottery.🤞🏼
The drive home is a long one, and can be especially long on a Sunday afternoon, with all the other weekenders heading back home.
Chris said he was going to find somewhere to buy a pillow so I could have a good sleep on the way. I said that it wasn’t necessary.
But it did spark a conversation about our lacklustre pillows and duvet at home.
Having spent a number of nights with really very good bed wares, it made ours seem even worse.
I paid a lot of money for our duvet a few years ago but it’s gone all clumpy and sparse. It’s really horrible.
The duvet at the Premier Inn and Portmeirion were an absolute delight.
So we agreed we’d start the search for new ones once we got home.
And this where that story gets a bit weird.
Because on our way home there is a very large, very fancy farm shop/posh road side service station.
We’ve been past the Rhug Estate so many times before but have never been in.
If you’ve ever been on that route through north Wales you’d know it because it has a statue of a very large bison outside. Which in rural Wales stands out somewhat.
Chris asked if I fancied stopping and I thought, why not. Never done that before.
It’s really really nice. It’s so well thought through.
It has a ;
Drive through coffee shop
Farm shop
A dine in cafe
Designated take away shop
Overnight camper van parking
A fancy 24 hour food vending machine area
Meeting rooms
Farm walks
They’ve thought of everything.
As we were walking through the shop I noticed some duvets and pillows. Not duvet covers, which would have been odd enough, but actual duvets.
The reason it caught my eye, was first it’s odd, and second we’d just been talking about duvets, and thirdly they are made of lambs wool.
I’d never heard of a lambs wool duvet before so Chris AI’ed it.
He discovered they have really good qualities and come highly recommended.
So we bought the king size extra thick duvet and two pillows - at a road side service station - you know, where all normal people buy their homewares from. 😬😂
Honestly it’s heaven! And I’m so glad we bought it there and then, for two very good reasons. 1, they very kindly gave us a rewards card for our purchases, that instantly entitled us to a free coffee and cake each (we have enough points for 3 more visits too!).
And 2, they don’t have the duvet we bought on their website, they only have the thin summer ones on there. So we wouldn’t have been able to retrospectively buy it.
It’s glorious, it’s incredibly good. It’s so warm, but not overheatingly so, it’s heavy enough to feel cosy, but not claustrophobically.
It’s absolutely perfect.
We had a fun weekend away. It would have been nice to not have a cold, but do you know what. All I kept thinking was that thank god I caught it over this weekend, and not the Disney one two weeks ago!!
That would have been an absolute catastrophe. So although it’s rubbish to feel rubbish, I’m so grateful and blessed that it didn’t happen for that adventure.
This one was far more virus friendly as we didn’t plan on moving much anyway.
The cold and flu starter pack;
I don’t believe I had Covid, and I definitely didn’t have flu. I’m vaccinated against both, so hopefully that will give me some immunity.
Mine was just a regular cold virus, a pretty unpleasant one, but manageable with over the counter goodies.
My advice to anyone reading this is to get stocked up, for winter in general really.
This bug is incredibly infectious, not that it matters where it came from, but I’m pretty sure I know where I caught it, and it passed to me very easily.
It’s horrid.
So although not deadly, it is unwanted in every way possible.
I have since been kind enough to pass it on to Chris. 😬
My poor nose and lips are all cracked and sore. I look very pretty right now, so I’ve been slapping on Eight Hour cream like it’s going out of fashion.
Try and stay safe, but if all else fails, stock up so you’re ready for it.
Much love ❤️