Vacation, vacation.

From Sunday I will mostly be lounging around in the sun for a week building up my courage for this horror and also my strength for a few days sightseeing in Barcelona.

I am going with friends and family to Llafranc on the Catalonian coast near Girona for a week in what looks like a seriously luxurious villa. This is due to the generosity and wealth of my friends, either that or it because of their ardent wish not to spend another holiday with us on a campsite! They are paying by far the highest proportion of the bill for the week. I felt quite bad about that until a couple of months ago my friend received a pay rise which was higher than my annual salary, and since then I have been able to live with myself.

Having said that the last time we were on a campsite with them it was at what has to be the loveliest campsite in Europe: here. That was in 2004. In 2003 Reidski was on holiday at that exact same campsite. And last year Reidski was on Catalonia coast near Girona, and spent time in Llafranc. Both these two coincidences are just that, coincidences, but quite big ones.

For years I have been promising myself that I would visit Barcelona. I was so thrilled when I booked it. Is it so very awful that I am actually finding it hard to look forward to my holiday because I am going to miss Reidski so much whilst I am away? But I know that I am going to have a wonderful time and have something nice to look forward to when I get back....him! Please excuse appalling lapse into soppiness.



I wrote the above before going to see R yesterday. Whilst telling me he would miss me he also said that after the year I have had I need this holiday and he is glad I am going. Something pretty vile did happen to me earlier this year which I have never written about, nor will I ever write about, but thankfully that is all in the past now where it can bloody well remain. It is strange looking back on it that something so major has been put right to the recesses of my memory and when it gets mentioned it is like recalling a bad dream I had because of how hard it is to believe what happened really did happen. Sorry to be so cryptic to those of you who haven't a clue what I am on about. So anyway, thanks to what he said I AM now able to look forward to my holiday and yes, I shall make the most of my R&R in the Catalonia sun, and even go on that horrible looking ride at Porta Adventura...although I feel just the once will be enough for this lifetime.