Well, it's day two and I'm writing this
sitting in bed (my body clock's out and its only 6 am here). Yesterday turned
out pretty eventful. Not only did I have
a nightmare catching my plane, but I didn’t catch my luggage at all!
With all the travelling I've done all over
the world that has never happened to me before.
I knew it was too good to be true when that BA Rep who sold me the
holiday told me that a 45 minute turnaround was manageable! I'm planning one hell of a complaint letter
to BA for when I get back.
That feeling of dread when you're waiting
for your case to come through on the carousel is one I never want to experience
ever again! When it was clear that my
case was missing, I ran (well hop skipped really cos I was wearing a rather
clingy maxi dress) over to the info desk and the women knew who I was.
"Your luggage wasn't on the plane Miss" ... Blimey, “no shit
Sherlock!” I had to fill some forms in
and she said that my case would be here the next day. I also got given £35 to buy emergency
toiletries (that doesn't even cover 1 of my face creams!).
Now, for some reason (the reason being that
I wanted to use the extra 6kg bag allowance to the full!) I'd actually packed a
load of stuff in my hand luggage this time, which I never usually do. I had all my bikinis - obviously THE most
important things when there's a beach involved on a holiday - all 14 of them,
one for each day (they weigh a ton by the way, with all the embellishments,
sequins and bits and bobs) plus some beach dresses, sarongs and kaftans.
So I wasn't as distressed as I might have
been usually. I also had a couple of
tiny suntan lotions which were small enough not to have been confiscated when I
did my second run through passport control, thanks to that stupid air
steward. If that hadn't happened, I'd
only have needed to buy deodorant. I had a toothbrush and tiny toothpaste from
the plane and obviously my bathroom at the hotel is full of luxury bath and
shower creams and potions, so not really the end of the world ... I can't
believe I'm saying that!
I trudged out of the airport to get the
connection to my hotel. When I went over
to the desk, the girls there knew my luggage hadn't arrived. I thought that was a bit odd, but someone had
told them and they were very sorry for me ... which was nice I guess. It seems everyone knows everything in the
Caribbean!
On the transfer, there was only me and a
couple from Texas who also had their luggage missing (though they hadn't come
from the same airport) apparently it happens more often than you'd think. The journey to the hotel was OK. The scenery
was amazing and the company was good. It just took longer than I expected at 2
hours and I was feeling a bit frazzled and more than a bit fraught when I got
here, what from the hassle at the airport and then no luggage...
When got out of the taxi, there was a
lovely little welcome committee waiting for me with a cold flannel and a
cocktail (God how I love 5*) and one of the ladies also knew that my luggage
was missing. "Don't worry Miss, it
will be here tomorrow and we will take care of everything. All you have to do is enjoy yourself".
That I can do!
So I got exported to my room, which is
beautiful by the way, and low and behold, was greeted by a fabulous display of
exotic flowers, basket of fruit, a bottle of champagne and a tea shirt as a
thank you for returning. Yay! Now that
really did make everything OK and certainly made me instantly forget my woes
(well nearly).
I promptly unpacked my little case,
emptying all my bikinis into a draw (I took a picture of that one cos it made
me laugh – they filled a mahoooosive drawer) unpacked the sarongs, beach
dresses and kaftans, did a quick change into a fab leopard bikini and matching
kaftan and went off to explore - well, really I went off in search of cold
champagne! Priorities. It's important in times like these to get
your priorities right.
Since I was here last time, they've done a
massive refurb on the place and it really is beautiful. They've done an amazing
job ... Check it out is called Le Sport and is also known as The Body
Holiday. It really is an amazing
place. Absolutely stunning.
So I found the shop, bought some more suntan
lotion and deodorant and then headed off to the bar. When I'd order me champers and taken a huge
breath in and out (saying "and relax" to myself) one of the spa
therapists that I was friendly with last year and have kept in contact with
spotted me and ran over for a hug. We
had a lovely little catch up and arranged to have lunch today. Then one of the many fitness instructors came
over for a chat and I said to him that I recognised one of the women at the bar
from last year, so he grabbed me by the hand and took me over to her. Turns out I do know her from latest year, her
name is Julie and we arranged to meet up later.
It was The Manager's Cocktail Party last
night which is hosted up at the spa which is totally stunning at night when
it's all lit up, it really is beautiful and I told Julie that I wasn't sure I
could attend as my luggage hadn't come and I really only had beach dresses
which I didn't think would be appropriate.
I said that I'd either meet her at 7.00 pm if I could or at 8.00 pm for
dinner. It was 6.00 pm at this point.
She headed off; I finished my third glass
of champers and thought I'd better do the same.
I got back to the room and had a good look through the few clothes I did
have and found a rather beautiful maxi leopard (you may have guessed that I
love leopard print by now) beach dress which is heavily beaded around the neck
and thought "perfect". Unfortunately, as it is a beach dress, it's
see through. However, as luck would have
it (by a complete fluke actually) I'd packed a black and a nude slip in with
the beach stuff and when I tried them on, the black one looked perfect under
the dress! Yay!
You'll never know quite how pleased with
myself I was at that moment ... I'm a bloody genius sometimes, even though I
say so myself! I darted into the shower,
remembering to keep me face and hair out of it, I really don't have the
equipment I need to deal with this amount of hair until my case comes as my
hair's very long and blonde if you didn't know and can be a bit unruly without
the right products and tools. I also
didn't have any makeup with me apart from powder and lip-gloss so I didn't want
to get my face wet and my mascara or run!
I've gotta be honest here, considering my
makeup was on for over 24 hours in a number of different atmospheres ie UK
early morning, airport, 2 planes, air conditioned taxi and Caribbean humidity,
my makeup really stood up to the challenge.
In case you're wondering which miracle products I used ... Smashbox
primer, Estée Lauder double wear foundation, Lancôme's Deficils mascara and Lancôme
blusher. True hero products!
I jumped out of the shower, used the
hotel's lovely body cream, patted down my face to get rid of shine, cleaned
teeth, whacked on some lip-gloss, threw my dress on, gave my hair a quick
finger comb (the curls of the morning when I set out where rather nice waves by
now) gave myself the once over in the full length mirror (thinking "not
too shabby coming from a standing start") and headed off for cocktails!
I had a really lovely night. I met some
wonderful people (there are lots of singles here) and also bumped into a few
who were here last year too which was nice.
We had cocktails and canapés (actually, I just had champagne and
canapés, and then wandered down to dinner at 8.00 pm. By 9.30, I was starting to feel a little
worse for wear (well I had been up for 26 hours by then) and was starting to
get a little squiffy from the alcohol, so said my good nights and headed off to
bed, took my makeup off, cleaned my teeth and literally fell in to bed and fast
asleep.
I woke up, wide wake at 5.30 am, that’s
10.30 am at home, so thought I'd catch up on my blog. So, what's on the agenda
today? Well, I don't think I'll have breakfast as I've been eating the fruit
from the fruit basket while I've been doing this, so I'll head off for my first
spa session at 9.00 am, which happens to be a full body massage ... Nice way to
start your first full day on holiday.
Then I'll plonk on the beach, do a bit of reading, may do a bit of
snorkelling/swimming and may even do yoga at tea time (provided my case has
arrived which has my workout stuff in it). Second thoughts, the chance of me
doing yoga when I come off the beach with I could be at a beautiful bar
drinking champagne ... The yoga is never gonna win that battle!
Right lovelies, I'm off. More tomorrow so don't forget to tune
in. Until then, be fabulous.
Lots of love
Jx
No comments:
Post a Comment