Mini Adventures

Hey!  In very exciting news (for me, at least), I am now officially a debt-free person.  With actual savings too.  It's all terribly exciting and adult, and I can't tell you how satisfying it was to pay off my cards and loans.  I even closed my student overdraft.  Finally.  It only took 12 years!

So that's all very awesome, and now that I am a solvent human being, I have every intention of staying that way.  Of being a person who has money in the bank, and can pay off her credit card in full each month and isn't generally scraping the barrel just before pay day.

Yay for me!!

And once the excitement of that was over, I set about planning a holiday or trip for after the season end, in earnest.  I'm feeling pretty proud of myself, because after some conversations with friends, it looked like no-one was really around at the right time to go away with me, and rather than just give up on the idea, I've gone ahead and booked something just for me!  Eeeeeek!

The only time I've been away on my own before was my month long trip to Africa in 2013, and somehow this felt different and a bit more scary (don't ask - it's not logical at all) because that was a fully planned tour and this was ... well, just a holiday.

But I've hit upon the perfect solution.  I knew I wanted to go somewhere warm, and I knew that rest and relaxation were high on the agenda.  I also realised, that if I was going travelling on my own then I needed some kind of agenda or activity to keep me engaged and stop me feeling lonely or bored at any point.  After looking at lots of different ideas and discarding them on the grounds of being too expensive, too long, too boring and a host of other reasons, I hit upon a good one and I just booked it today.  So 4 weeks today I'll be surfing in Morocco!

I've found a surf camp that also runs beginners surf courses (despite owning my own board, I am very much a beginner ... or useless, depending on which way you look at it!), with optional yoga sessions in the mornings, doesn't charge an arm and a leg to penalise solo travellers and offers a chilled out, social situation, where everyone eats together at meal times.  Perfect.  There's a pool and a roof-top terrace, lessons on 5 days and options to visit nearby markets, hammams and all sorts of other interesting local attractions.

I'm really happy about the yoga part of the holiday too, and like that the surf lessons are only 2 hours in the morning, as I know I get knackered quickly, which leaves you the option to either do additional surf guiding in the afternoon if you're feeling particularly energetic or just chill at the riad.  Perfect.

I've never been to Morocco before, so that ticks off one of the three new countries I wanted to visit this year, and will also count towards my surf goal too.  It'll be a great week to rest, relax and recharge before I hurl myself back into work full time.  Plus I have just over a week at home with my Dad first - yay!!

All in all, I'm feeling pretty positive right now.  I think my friend and I have vaguely come to agreement on the terms of my renting her spare room in London.  The last big transfer day of the season is out of the way and it's less than 3 weeks until I see my family again.  The sun is coming out tomorrow, so I might actually put my damn skis on and go up the mountain (as it's been a shameful 9 days since I last did so), oooooh and I might be parapenting next week!  Generally, life isn't too bad.

Here's to life!

And Folie Douce Fridays!