Mauritius

A very happy belated new year all!

So I had a very busy Christmas, working up until midday on Christmas Eve at my office job and then I worked Christmas Eve evening and Christmas day at the pub, so as you can imagine I wasn’t the happiest person about, until I had finished work. However after some champagne and Christmas dinner I soon cheered up and even produced a fun quiz for the family, the Tomlinsons and Nath which soon got quite competitive. All it all it was a lovely festive day and by the end of it, I was exhausted.

New Year’s Eve quickly came round, to which Mum, Dad, Adrian and I flew out to Mauritius to be with Granny and Granda, Dad’s sister Alison, Avron and my cousins Ross and Joel to welcome in 2014. It was the most amazing holiday and would recommend the island to anyone, so thank you Granny and Granda for such an incredible treat.

Whilst we were there we witnessed a Cyclone, which didn’t directly hit Mauritius itself, however we still experienced torrential rain and lots of wind. But this hardly dampened our spirits like it would be in UK, the weather was still hot and humid and we got a fair bit of sun.

We stayed at Le Mauritia, located on the North of the Island in an area called Grand Baie, not far from the capital Port Louis. For those of you who have yet to visit Mauritius, the main language spoken is either French or Creole and the country is located, not far from South Africa and Madagascar and is in the Indian Ocean. So if you are travelling from the UK, you are looking at around a 12 hour flight.

We spent most of the week in the sea, taking full advantage of the water sports; water-skiing, paddle-boarding, wind-surfing and sailing. It was a perfect area for beginners to learn, as the hotel was situated in a bay, so even if it was windy, the bay was still quite calm.

We also had a great day out on the East of the island on a Catamaran, where we went parasailing and to say it was incredible was an understatement, the views were just incredible and you could see the reef, where the colour of the sea went from bright blue, to dark blue.

The food in the hotel was lovely and there was great variation every day, and I managed to control myself and stuck to mainly only one helping. There was lots of fish, including sushi, lots of different meats, salads, cheeses fruits, pastas and then pizzas, so whatever you wanted it was there.

All in all, an amazing holiday and it was so great getting to see my family (from South Africa) and spend some good quality time with them.

Until next time xo

Just a little recap...

Apologies for my 3 month plus sabbatical from the blogosphere, however due to my lack of travel I wasn't sure whether blogging about my everyday working life would be half as exciting as the life of a traveler. I am in the process of putting together a second blog which would sort of revolve around life after university, but can't wait think of a name... suggestions welcome. So feel free to read that once created, if that's your thing. So an update from my time away from the Elephant Never Forgets...

August  

 Managed to get a pub job (4 minute walk away from home) a week after returning from Asia

Celebrated my Tash's birthday 

·         Attended several office-type interviews and was offered a few, all of which I turned down - wasn't for me 

·         Saw Steph a few times in Bristol 

·         Went to Centre Parcs with family friends 

·         Got offered a job as Marketing Co-ordinator

  

September 

·         Started my new job  

·         Saw Steph again in Bristol 

·         Got my first parking ticket 

·         Saw a friend in Covent Garden for dinner 

·         Invited to my first baby shower 

·         Lots of time at my new gym - even took dad 

·         Visited Debbie in Manchester with Mel 

October 

·         My other friend's baby was born, a beautiful baby girl, Maia 

·         Went to a work team away day  

·         Applied for some graduate jobs 

·         Went to Steph's Halloween house party  

·         Got my hair highlighted for the first time in 8 months - didn't like it so got it done again 

·         Bought my graduation dress 

November 

·         Went to a family friend's 18th 

·         Picked Debbie up from the airport 

·         Graduated with a first 

·         Went to Sport's Reunion and had a very late night (early morning) 

·         Nathan moved to Wokingham 

And I think that's everything up-to-date!! As you can see not interesting enough to blog intensely about. In terms of upcoming travel plans, I'm heading to Mauritius with my mum, dad, brother, granny, granda, auntie, uncle and two cousins in December for 8 days and then skiing at some point in January with mum and dad. Then later in the year I'm travelling again but until I have these confirmed I won't blog about them. 

For my family in warmer continents than the UK, British weather took a turn for the worst this morning ( 1degree) which meant I had to scrape the ice of the car which is not ideal when you are already running late for work, however thankfully dad has somehow convinced mum to put on the heating, which means that I actually want to get out of bed in the morning because I'm sweating too much. Don't think I am complaining, because I'm not, my new room (the extension, for those of you that know my house) is freezing so without heating, leaving my bed in the morning is positively traumatic.

Picture post

A very long month of travelling blues has now gone by, so I though I'd give myself a cheer up with a post of a few of my favourite picture. Enjoy!

Quick stopover in Dubai

Dubai, what can I say? 

A friend from uni recently moved to Dubai for a job and so he was more than willing to pick us up from the airport. We had no issues leaving, although as it was Ramadan??? As a female I had to make sure I was covered up, which was really no bother to me as we arrived there in the early evening. However unknowing of me, the temperature was a unforgiving 36 degrees Celsius, which may also sound fine but it was the humidity that really hit us. As soon as we left the cool air conditioning of the airport we were hit with a never ending blast of heat and after walking no further than 10 minutes our feet were starting to slide around in our flip flops. Far from pleasant.

However soon was all forgotten as we reached the air conditioning of Matt's car and we started to see the sights of Dubai.

It was nothing like either of us had ever seen before, it was so extravagant and rich and sparkling. All the sky scraping buildings had glittering lights on them, which we were told was to alert the planes of their precise. The city literally oozed wealth and had such a presence. 

Matt then took us to the main Dubai shopping mall, which was ridiculous. We walked in on a red carpet and the shops were all high-end designers and even the shops we have in England such as; Topshop, River Island and Jack Wills seemed to fit in. We then went to the outside 'riverside' (I've put this in inverted commas as I'm not quite sure how to describe it and it's also man made) and stood below the Barj Khalifa (AKA tallest building in the world) and it was ridiculous. It was also good timing that we arrived there when we did as there was a fountain show.

This is the Barj Khalifa..

And my phone couldn't even capture it all. 

This was the 'riverside'..

We then got back into Matt's car and headed towards Jameirha??? Which we drove up to and all the palm trees were covered in little gold lights. He took us to dinner at Toscana, an Italian restaurant also set around water. Luckily Matt had vouchers so the meal was reasonably priced however cokes were £4 a pop. 

From here we drove around a bit further and saw the 7 star hotel, although I can't remember the name and then we parked up near the beach. Matt then treated us to a fresh juice from Pulp and I had a lemon, apple and mint juice, it was amazing.

From here we walked to the beach, my pictures aren't great as it was very dark by this point.

The temperature of the water was ridiculous, I mean crazy hot, I'm predicting around 30 degrees Celsius. If you were on the beach at midday you would not use the sea to cool down. If I was to go on holiday to Dubai, I think a hotel/apartment with a pool would be essential. 

By this point it was coming up to 11.30pm Dubai time and we needed to be heading back to the airport, so we bid farewell to Matt and made our way through check in. 

And now I can conclude that our adventure is pretty much over, however don't think that I will stop writing my blogs!! 

Keep updated...