.
As adults I think we call it “just being”. Just being allowed the time and space to be. To be whatever we want right then. As children it was either the time to make believe or to daydream. As adults this time to be is rare, and therefore precious.
During the week I am busy being a working mum. A terrible cook. A mediocre wife. A lacklustre dog walker. A rubbish cleaner. Mr B is busy being a commuter and being a team leader with a job that means he has to concentrate and think for 10 hours a day and not take his eye off the ball.
During the week we barely get to have a conversation in the evening as by 8pm most nights we have each lost the power of speech, we are so tired.
All of which mean our weekends are filled with domestic drudgery and endless to do lists and chasing our tails until we fall asleep in front of the TV, there is no time to just be.
To just be us.
This weekend we did get to spend the weekend just being us, at Amberstone Manor in Devon as guests of Oliver’s Travels where they wanted us to just be. To be able to relax, to be able to enjoy, to be able to explore five acres of gorgeous grounds. It was almost like a second honeymoon.
I don’t want to get all sentimental but you know when you have been with someone for so long it gets so easy to fall into a rut where you are busy being you with all your hats on that you forget to take a moment to step back and reconnect to the ones you love. A family dinner where you all laugh around a table, or a day out on rollercoasters, or a weekend away.
We’ve spent the weekend laughing with that nutcase Annie who never fails to put me in a good mood, just don’t ask her about nymphs.
We lazed around doing bugger nothing but eating food we hadn’t had to think about and drinking some incredible wines. And gin with elderflower leaves and slices of cucumber in it.
We wandered in gardens and photographed grottos and statues and hidden underground springs.
We had a sauna
We had a three course dinner cooked for us by a professional chef, served by attentive waiting staff who were happy to keep offering us wine and have us say “we couldn’t have another gin, could we?”
We learned how to make a chocolate cake and style it to the next level. Look here is an actual picture that I took and that has reignited my love of photography and desire to style food in my blog posts as more than just “here’s a thing I put on a plate”.
We giggled and did daft things like trying to go for a swim in a freezing pool at midnight but then realised we couldn’t get the cover off so we dipped our feet in and then some plunged in and straight out again, you know the sort of thing no responsible adult would ever do.
We made friends with people we hadn’t met before.
We talked, about insignificant stuff but stuff that we never really get a chance to talk about at home as there is just no time.
We got to have a bath, not sharing the same one I would like to clarify, there is no bath big enough to fit my arse and another one in. But I got to spend half an hour lying in a bath on a Saturday morning reading a copy of Vogue. I don’t think that has happened in about five years.
In fact I got to be a fashionista with lots of money as I spent an hour or two flicking through the piles of magazines left for guests
I got to be me this weekend and from a weekend away with a travel company I can’t really ask for anything more
And more importantly, we got to be us
Oh wow! How amazing. I don’t remember how to “just be”.
Karin xx
I am not sure I had remembered either but this weekend me reminded me. Something us parents should all get a chance to do every now and again.
What a lovely story!
[ Mutters – lucky so and sos! ]
Still, I think you deserve it.
Just listening to PM on Radio 4 – I’m glad the man who built the house behind the mound of bales of straw has not won his appeal to the Supreme Court. Secretly I admire his enterprise but he was such a hypocrite when, before going into court he accused his local authority of “deception”! Mr Pot speaking…….
He’s now got to dismantle his house – looks v nice but was built on Green Belt without P Permission – before June 2016.
Not very smart.
Unlike the man who sought from his local planner an estimate of the increase in his rateable value if he were to build a double garage. He gave full specification and drawings showing location, elevations etc. In due course the District Valuer offered his advice that £120 should be added to the man’s RV.
The man thanked the DV and asked for his RV to be REDUCED by £120 since he had just demolished a structure identical to the one he’d described. He won. Game, set and match!
Hurrah!
Started as a short comment.
Got carried away – sorry.
Why do my comments always “freeze” everyone else’s keyboards?
I think I should be told!
[ It’s 5 hours since I first “uttered” ]
It’s not personal :_) Commenting on blogs is down in general as people don’t do it as much as they used to. Many people read blogs on their phones and commenting is tricky from those. Also people don’t always have the time. Or they share a link on Twitter and comment there.
I love your comments though, they prove my blog is not broken 🙂
Sounds like a great relaxing weekend. Yes commenting is often difficult due to our busy lives and as you say using smartphones etc. However this is my day off an there’s always time for a ‘Toilet Twitter’ or ‘TT’ as it’s known around these parts!!!!
I did this recently with a friends – a night at a spa in East London. It was wonderful, truly wonderful. So pleased you had fun, and found time to be you. Being you is very, very good and more of us need to do it more often xx