Kalkan

This year we visited Turkey again with our extended famalam the Hoskings and had a jolly old time. Mum, Dad, Heather Nigel and Tom and George had already been there a week to scope the joint, suss out the best beaches and restaurants and to just get familiar with the place (and to enjoy the lovely 35 degree sunshine ofc!) Generally, I don’t like to visit the same holiday location more than once, as I would prefer to use the opportunity to see more of the world! However this little gem, is a town I would love to revisit. Our villa was stunning, the locals were the friendliest bunch I have ever met, and the town was so quaint and pretty, yet had a bit of spark to it and some nightlife. We operated the standard set up of balancing meals out in restaurants, with boozy barbeques in the villa (+games articulate and the like).

Hayley and I enjoying the nightlife

 

Tom enjoying his pina colada....

 

When buying the meat for our BBQ, the local butcher gave us extra chicken and threw in some seasoning on the house! One of the locals fixed Heather's shoe when she was looking to purchase new ones. On every occasion they went above and beyond to keep the tourists happy!  Our daily routine involved getting up and eating eggs for breakfast, having a stroll down into the town for a cocktail , a Turkish shave, petting one of the friendly stray dogs, playing relay water hockey in the pool (which I was surprisingly good at!) and then enjoying G&T on the roof top terrace of the villa.

The view from the roof of our villa

 

Unfortunately Jon had to leave early to do some modelling work back in London (as you do) so we bought a uncanny flag from a nice blind man to ensure that he was represented at all times. Oh and we bought fezzes, because we are hilarious.

Tom and George

 

Hayley and Chris

 



Selfie fun

 

Dinner in Kalkan

My highlight from this trip was seeing a pretty hefty sea turtle from the roof of a boat that we’d hired for the day to see the old roman ruins of Turkey along the coast. Oh that’s another amazing thing; the roman architecture is amazing! And its not made a song and dance about at all. Literally you drive past a coliseum style structure just to get to the beach!



Dat sea doh.

I can’t think of a better way to spend a relaxing break with some of my favourite people!

Glastonbury 2015

After a frantic stomach churning race for tickets back in October, myself Natalie and Rach got the long awaited privilege to attend the legacy that is Glastonbury festival. I’d read the entire do’s and don’ts, done the line-up planning and homework, yet after 5 days of tent life I genuinely only feel like I’ve experienced about 10 percent of what is Glastonbury. I had a wicked time, watched some sick bands and consumed copious festival food. A month later I will try to do this blog post justice!

We set off bleary eyed and stomachs full from Hayley’s homemade spag bol at a cheery 5:30 am, having loaded my tardis Micra with a ridiculous amount of stuff. Then came many of the pitfalls of being a Glastonbury noob. We got lost, so lost, on the way to finding the carpark, which then left us queuing with everybody else trying to get in at opening time at 8:00. THEN some steward bitch pointed us in the direction of gate A (because the queue was shorter than gate D) which was like half an hours walk North of where we wanted to camp. I had been told that the first hour of Glastonbury is hell, lugging all your shit into the unknown, when you’re just desperate to sit down and have that first beer. That is in a nutshell correct lol. At one point I gaffa taped my hand to stop it rubbing on the handle of my granny shopper trolley (used to transport booze, borrowed from Nanny). This actually proved to be a surprisingly successful method until our other sack barrow broke so we committed to camping in that spot. On which we were horrified to realise we’d only travelled about 1 cm on the map! HOW BIG IS THIS PLACE????

 

Rach snuggled up cosy in Jezza 2.0

Once the arrival of doom was over, and we were nicely settled in our camp (specifically less than 100 meters away from some sawdust loos – a dream!), we got our Glastonbury onnnnnn. There’s so many things to do that aren’t the music, so on the first few days – Wednesday to Friday, we took the opportunity to explore. The letters on the hill are great, silent disco, and fireworks from Kat and Pav’s set up. One of my favourite areas was the Greanpeace area, which had a large boat slide, which you had to dress up as a fish to go down, and had live music sets playing. We also trekked it to unfair ground and ShangriLa which were pretty awesome.  Our camp was a short walk from an area called silver hayes, which had loads of cool structures and sets.

Arcadia - a giant spider with fire and a DJ (as you do)

 

 

Glasto has a splendid ‘bring your own booze’ policy. So we pretty much packed our ‘spirit rucksack’ with a bag of wine for the day and some spirits for later. You don’t want to have to go back to your tent if you can avoid it! I hit the drink a bit too hard on the first night, after chilling out with Kat and friends in West Holts , bar crawling the circus area and losing them at the silent disco. I ended up losing the tent watching the sunrise on Glastonbury Hill. And…… then proceeding to not be able to function the next day.

 

We saw a secret set from Bastille, but my other favourite acts include (and in this order); Lionel, Pharell, Hozier, Kanye, Charli XCX, Chemical Bros and Mark Ronson.

THE. FOOD. Our days literally revolved about what we were going to eat that day and when. My highlights were a chorizo and halloumi burrito (devine) and a gorgeous creamy mushroom pasta. There is everything and anything you could ever think of. It’s perfectly acceptable to have paella for breakfast y’know.

Oh and the weather was sick.  I am so keen for next year. Bring on Glasto 2016! 
 
 


Enjoying George Ezra from the top of the hill



Horrific journey home

 

Rach loving life with Lionel