Mr S and I are very different with our memories of childhood holidays. He has happy memories of annual beach holidays in the UK and European coach trips, whilst my family holidays were haphazard, I remember a holiday to Bournemouth and the Isle of Wight when we were young, some road trips to northern Europe and a couple of family holidays to sunny Europe in my mid teens.

As a couple, holidays have always been important to us, we work hard and play hard. Before children we had some amazing holidays, Australia, the Caribbean and cruises. We saved hard for every holiday and would have a luxury holiday every few years with a UK based holiday in between. When the children arrived, we discovered Butlins and it’s now a very special place for us. We ventured abroad together for the first time as a family in 2013, my 40^th birthday present was a family holiday to Mallorca, and we have been abroad many times since, we love the sunshine, pools and beaches. For today’s #blogtober17, I’m doing a best and worst holiday.  I feel a little guilty that our best wasn’t a family holiday, but perhaps that is still to come (Disneyland, USA?) However, I will always have very special memories of Mallorca as our favourite family destination.

My best holiday – Australia 2002. Mr S is a huge cricket fan and we went on an organised Ashes tour to Melbourne and Sydney. Thanks to a generous exchange rate, we stayed in the best hotels I have ever stayed in. Our room in The 4 Seasons in Sydney overlooked the Opera House and was stunning. It was just the best holiday, I fell in love with Australia and got to visit all the places I had dreamed of, the Opera House, Bondi beach and Pin Oak Court, to those non Neighbours fans this is the real life Ramsey Street. Looking back this was our pre wedding honeymoon. On a boat in Sydney harbour on New Year’s eve we made a resolution to get married in the coming year, which we did in a quiet ceremony in August. We did return to Australia again in 2006 and it was another brilliant holiday, but nothing beats the magic of our first visit to Australia.

Worst holiday – Christmas (I can’t remember the year it’s still a blur) We had a romantic idea of Christmas in Cornwall and found the perfect venue, a cottage on a farm, where we imagined walks in the countryside, open fires and enjoying home cooked meals, for which I had brought recipe books etc..  The reality was a little different, it snowed heavily and the roads were treacherous with snow and black ice. We would have coped with this if the central heating had been working but it was very temperamental and we were freezing, the limited kitchen meant my grand cooking ideas were difficult to realise too. On Christmas day, after becoming a little stir crazy inside, we tried to get out of the cottage and the car slid on the black ice into a wall, fortunately with minimal damage. It was at this point we admitted defeat and as soon as the thaw began we left early for the comfort and warmth of home.