Tag: last day of holiday

#oneaday Day 829: The hotel after the holiday

As promised, I am coming to you live from The Broadway Hotel, Letchworth, where I am staying overnight ahead of a Work Thing that I don't think anyone in their right mind is looking forward to.

I am tired, I am grumpy, my back hurts and I just want to be at home in my own bed with my cats, but instead here I am in another hotel room, the same day I returned from holiday, trying to get comfortable on a bed that is weirdly high off the ground.

Still, at least I was fortunate enough to get a room with a bath this time, so I enjoyed a mildly indulgent soak earlier, which was nice. The hotel baths are nicer than our bath at home, so I usually take the opportunity to use them if I have one. Unfortunately not all the rooms have them, so I can never guarantee this will be the case — and the shower-only rooms here appear to have been designed by someone whose understanding of spatial awareness is somewhat different from what one might call "the norm", shall we say.

Also I smelled pretty bad, so I was glad to be able to properly wash off the stench of packing up, going swimming, having lunch, driving home, placating the cats, packing up again then driving for three hours.

Were it not for the last bit, our last official day of holiday would have been very pleasant. We got up in plenty of time to pack up and vacate the lodge ahead of our 10am departure time, but we thought we'd hang around for a little bit before leaving. You're technically allowed to stay until midnight on the day of your departure, you just can't have your accommodation after 10am.

We kicked off our morning of being in limbo between vacating the lodge and leaving the site with a swim. I have been doing a lot of swimming on this holiday, and my aching body today reminded me of this fact, so we took it prettt easy, just having a casual splash around in the main pool, a few times around the slow river and a session in the wave machine.

After that we did something we haven't done before: we thought we'd have a nice meal out at one of the restaurants as a final farewell. We picked Bella Italia, which I know isn't super exciting, but Andie had been working on the assumption that "it's just pasta, which you might as well do at home" until I convinced her to look at the menu and she discovered they do a bunch of other stuff.

Andie had dough balls then a sea bass fillet with veg and buttery potatoes, and I had calamari then a spicy pizza with nduja, roquito sweet chili peppers, red pepper and tomato. It was really good, but I have had humongous farts for the rest of the day. I say "but", when of course I consider this to be a tremendous benefit.

Anyway, the first part of today was a good way to see off our holiday. The latter part has made me grumpy, but I'm trying not to think too hard about that. Tomorrow will be over and done with before I know it, and then hopefully normality can resume.

Oh, and my mini PC was indeed dead dead, so I've had to hastily buy a new one. Fun. That should arrive tomorrow, so aside from not actually having my own computer in the office tomorrow, life should continue with minimal interruptions — and from next weekend, I plan to make a start on my renewed plans for YouTube, so there's that to look forward to.

Anyway, I should probably attempt to sleep amid this cloud of fart gas I currently exist within, so on that note I will bid you a good night.

Want to read my thoughts on various video games, visual novels and other popular culture things? Stop by MoeGamer.net, my site for all things fun where I am generally a lot more cheerful. And if you fancy watching some vids on classic games, drop by my YouTube channel.

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#oneaday Day 464: Last full day in the forest

It's our last full day of holiday today. Technically we are still "on holiday" tomorrow, but we have to check out of the accommodation at 10am, so our plan is to get up, have some breakfast, pack, skedaddle out of the lodge and then have a last hurrah in the pool before leaving for proper realsies.

Technically we're apparently allowed to stay on the site until midnight, but I feel that is probably only really of value to those who 1) have booked a full day of activities and 2) have the energy to expend on a full day of activities. We do not fall into either of those categories, so it will be a case of enjoying the pool for one last time, then heading off and chilling out at home for the remainder of the day. That's my plan, anyway; Andie has to take her mother back home (she's been looking after our cats while we've been away) but she also has Tuesday off, whereas I'm back to work on Tuesday.

This time away has done me a lot of good, as I hoped it would. It has allowed me to simply "switch off" from all the things that had been weighing on my mind, relax, recentre myself, focus and reflect on a few things. There are some changes I need to make in my life, both personally and professionally, and having this time away has allowed me to put those things in perspective and feel a bit more determined and positive about that. I hasten to add that these "changes" are nothing that anyone needs to be concerned about; they're pretty much all to do with my own physical and mental wellbeing, both of which, I'm sure you can tell from recent posts, have been kind of in the toilet for a while.

It's important to take breaks. It's really important to take breaks. Ideally, one should take breaks before one starts suffering from intense burnout, which I'd been feeling rather acutely in the run up to this holiday, but at least I was able to actually enjoy the holiday rather than spending the entire time feeling miserable. We've had a thoroughly lovely time, done some things we've never done before — the spa day was thoroughly pleasant, and we'd very much like to do that again — and we're both feeling pretty re-energised for the challenges ahead.

Plus we'd both like to see our cats again. It has been fun to see the squirrels and the deer and the semi-feral cats out of our patio window, but I'm looking forward to having a proper cuddle with Patti and Oliver when we get back, assuming they're not too mad with us for leaving them for so long. They get on very well with Andie's mum, thankfully, so they've been in good hands; even Patti, who typically bolts and hides when strangers show up, doesn't take long to come out of her shell and spend time with Andie's mum any time she comes to stay, so we know they'll have both enjoyed the best care and attention.

So with that in mind, I probably better get to bed. If we're checking out at 10am, we have to get up reasonably early (by the standards of this holiday, and by the standards of our usual "day off lie-ins", anyway) and I would like to be at least semi-conscious while packing my stuff up. And thus, on that note, I bid you all a very good night from the depths of the forest.

Want to read my thoughts on various video games, visual novels and other popular culture things? Stop by MoeGamer.net, my site for all things fun where I am generally a lot more cheerful. And if you fancy watching some vids on classic games, drop by my YouTube channel.

If you want this nonsense in your inbox every day, please feel free to subscribe via email. Your email address won't be used for anything else.