2142: R&R

Andie and I are away at the moment. We’re at Center Parcs in Longleat Forest again — we came here last year and enjoyed it so much that we thought we’d do the same thing again this year. It also doubles as a sort of unofficial and belated honeymoon, since we didn’t have one after we got married earlier in the year.

This break has come at exactly the right time for the pair of us. We’ve both had a somewhat difficult few… weeks, months, I’ve kind of lost track along the way somewhere. It’s been shitty for both of us, though I’m both glad and happy to say that we are both still standing, and supporting each other through this difficult period.

Anyway. However long it’s been that we’ve been dealing with crap, we were both in urgent need of some heavy-duty rest and relaxation, so that’s what it’s been all about so far; we didn’t do a whole lot yesterday, and all we’ve done today really is go for a swim and a little wander. We’re doing activities tomorrow and Thursday, though; archery tomorrow and seeing some owls on Thursday. These are the exact same activities we did on our visit last year, but we enjoyed them both, so figured hey, why not do them again?

We’re also both taking a full day off from Slimming World tomorrow, because it’s a holiday, and we’re both fully prepared for the fact that may mean gaining some weight if we want to truly enjoy ourselves. We’re not planning on going completely crazy, though, and on the other days we’re being sensible, if not overly strict with ourselves. That seems to be a good way to handle the holiday situation; it would be all too easy to feel obliged to restrict ourselves and not feel like we were having the opportunity to properly enjoy ourselves.

You don’t need to indulge yourself to enjoy yourself, of course, whether said indulgence comes in the form of drinking alcohol (which I think we’ve established isn’t something I do any more) or eating delicious food. Indulgence to the point of satisfaction (i.e. not overindulgence to the point of making yourself ill) is worthwhile, though; it can feel like a “reward” for a job well done, or simply a break from the norm.

It’s the latter aspect that I think will be the most helpful for both of us; our bleak feelings have been somewhat exacerbated by the never-changing nature of day-to-day life, so breaking from that usual routine is a good thing. It will suck to go back to that routine, of course, but having had a bit of time off for it will doubtless prove to be enormously refreshing.

Everyone needs to take time to recharge their batteries now and then; we should both probably have done this a bit sooner.