It’s a tough life

Over the last few years, I’ve had a few defining moments where I can genuinely say that I have experienced utter contentment. One of these was lying on a sun lounger on a beach in Malaga on a Saturday afternoon. The weather was perfect – disgustingly hot with a lovely breeze – and we almost had the beach to ourselves.

This scenario had resulted after a random conversation with my friend, NW in the pub on a fairly miserable September day. Her 30th birthday was approaching, and I asked her if she had decided what she wanted to do to celebrate. She replied with “I’m going to Malaga”, and told me if I wanted to come I’d be more than welcome. I got the details of her flight and booked myself onto the same one, the best thing about it being that as it was during a normal term time it cost less than £80 for a return flight.

A few weeks later, I finished work on the Friday at 4.00pm, and by 8.00pm I had landed in Malaga with NW and a few of her friends. We were staying at a hostel not far from the beach, and it turned out to be lovely. As soon as we arrived we were invited on a bar crawl, and we found it hilarious that they took us to ‘The London Bar’, that had a red phone box in the entrance and a backdrop of London on the wall. There were lots of people having their picture taken with it, which always amuses me as I have one around the corner from my house, and the only time it is used is for the purpose of urination by local drunks. We drank and danced for most of the night, ending up in a random rock club at 5.00am.

The view of Malaga from the boat

The entire Saturday was spent on the beach in our swimming costumes and bikinis doing absolutely nothing. While my friends at home and The Bloke were in the cold and rain I was lazing about in the sun. The was no time limit, no purpose and no limitations – we were free to do what we wanted, when we wanted. We spent the weekend relaxing, drinking, did a little bit of sight-seeing on a boat where we watched dolphins swimming about (while I tried not to vomit as I suffer from terrible motion sickness) and having a great time. The girls on the trip were lovely, the food was fantastic and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

We arrived back in the UK late on the Sunday night, and on Monday morning I was sitting at my desk at work, wishing I could be back on the beach.

Best weekend I’d had all year, for less that £150 for everything. I need to learn Spanish…

What about you guys? Have you ever spontaneously decided to go somewhere just to have a break?

You can also find me on Twitter and Tumblr @suzie81blog