Vigo and Portsmouth!

Howzit!

So my last blog ended with us leaving Gib and my last day was spent franticly buying up most of the high st (including 8 monkeys for my nephews/nieces/godchildren). A superyacht called Flying Fox pulled up next to us the last 3 days. Due to the weather up towards (and including) the ominous Bay of Biscay, we were being cautious about when to leave Gib. But when Flying Fox left before us, I tried to drop a few hints to our captain that we should follow suit and just take a bit of a beating if necessary, or we would be stuck in Gib for the rest of my life. So the next day we were informed that we would creep up the coast to Vigo, in Northern Spain, just before the Bay of Biscay and then as soon as there was a gap in the weather we’d take it. 

Vigo- another industrial shit hole town. We felt the cold the minute we arrived. An 8 degree drop from Gib. There wasn’t all that much to do there except shop, so I purposefully stayed away to avoid the temptation. Flying Fox was there again and I decided to make friends and went out for dinner with them twice. Some of the menu items had us in giggles: 

We finally arrived in Portsmouth last Saturday- English speaking, first world civilization- thank fuck, I was about to do my head in. After 2.5 weeks in shitty Gibraltar and then 3 days in Vigo, I couldn’t wait to get a train to London the second I arrived. Holy cow Portsmouth is cold though- 2 degrees. When we left Antibes it was between 12 and 16 in the day, so it’s a huge drop in temp and clever fish here came to Europe in Winter without a coat (fail). So Saturday morning after we anchored, I wrapped in the warmest clothes I had, put on my new long suede boots and pretty much ran to the train station fantasizing about the joys of London and seeing my hot kiwi boy (whose name is Harry by the way), who was going to be in London for the weekend and whom I haven’t seen in about 3 weeks. 

The train ride to London is about 2hrs so not so bad. The kiwi was at rugby with the boys, so I went to visit one of my best friend’s brothers- Ian and hung out with him all afternoon. Later that night I went through to the kiwi and his crew who were staying like 45mins away (I forgot how far away everything is in London). We had a bit of a party and then Sunday morning I went to go see my cousin and we went ice skating! For someone who hasn’t ice skated in a few years I did pretty well! I asked my chief stew if I could stay another day to spend some more time with my kiwi boy and I was super stoked when she said yes! I went back to meet the crew and we headed off to a kiff little pub in Wandsworth called The Ship, which is awesome! God Harry is hot, flip. Makes me tingly every time I look at him.  And turns out he can also be really sweet. His friends are just hilarious and I spent the entire night laughing. Decided that kiwi’s are pretty awesome. 

So after a rather sad goodbye from my side, I headed back to Portsmouth and started planning a trip back to Antibes.  Which is now booked and paid- radness! I pretty much land in Heathrow the get on another plane and go straight to Antibes for the weekend- jet setter of note! Can’t wait! Equinox here I come (if I’m allowed back in this time)! 

My roommate finally arrived back from her holiday on Monday. I was a lil nervous of meeting her incase she didn't like me or would get fed up with my snoring and beat me over the head with a pillow in the middle of the night. But she is pretty kiff! She is small like a gnome; pretty and has the most contagious laugh and we get on like toast and jam. We decided to head out for some shopping after work this week and I managed to get some rad Christmas presents, but as usual (I can’t help myself) I fell in love with a gorgeous cream dress and some black ankle boots. 

There was also a pair of patent, dusty pink Kurt Geiger shoes, but I managed to summon the will power to say no to them. 

So I’ve covered my eat/love and now back to the “pray I don’t get fat” bit.

Well...

With 2 week’s till the wedding I stepped up my exercise routine a few weeks ago and then tried to start this weird super strict diet for the last 2 weeks where If I want to eat carbs I have to run off and do 40 squats beforehand (something about it opens up your muscle fibers so whatever you eat is absorbed into your muscles as opposed to being stored for energy- fat).  And I have been trying to have a shake as a meal replacement once a day for either dinner or lunch. I could do that, but then 3 hours later I’d be found raiding the snack cupboard, munching chips and eating biscuits like a squirrel that had just come out of winter hibernation and discovered his secret nut pile.  So after sitting down and having a stern chat with myself, we agreed that I have no will power and can’t live without food, so I’d just try to exercise more and eat tiny portions of as much healthy food as possible (no starch, but can snack on the occasional biscuit or small choccie) and if I don’t have the body that I did when I was 23 then sod it, I don’t actually care anymore (Bridget Jones moment). Food is the second most pleasurable thing in the world to sex and I refuse to go through life missing out on the joy of eating. Life is too short. 

I have also successfully managed to stop drinking wine (my favourite thing) and treat myself just once every 2 weeks to a glass- which I think has actually had the biggest impact on my weight. My first month in Antibes was just a booze fest and I went through a few bottles a night. And this coming few weeks in Cape Town with Tam’s wedding festivities and Christmas, is going to be a huge piss up, so I’m glad I’ve had a detox.

Well me and the girls finally managed to see Twilight the other night and it was even better than I had worked it up to be! We had a lovely dinner beforehand (I was stoked to see there was "Cape Town" pizza on the menu), then each got a tub of Ben & Jerrys which we scoffed down. 

Me and Lara Para

Alice, El and La

We sat in the cinema, wide eyed, shrieking when Taylor Lautner took his top off in one of the first scenes- omg he is ripped. You don’t know what to do with your hands cos you just want to reach out and touch those muscles- aah! 

Die hard fans....

 We put up the Christmas tree in our crew mess on Friday and ate mince pies and played Christmas music. Lara and were so excited, like little kids, bouncing around with Christmas decorations and singing (very out of tune) in everyone’s ear.

Decorations!

Alice and La

Me and El

Our finished tree!

The gingerbread man on my cabin door

All the girls (crap photo quality thanks to Olly...)

I spent the whole of yesterday shopping for Christmas presents and think I managed to ace most of it, including some Percy Pigs for Harry. The shopping in Portsmouth really isn’t that bad- there’s a big shopping centre with a Topshop, Miss Selfridge, Primark, Next, H&M etc and then Gunwharf Quays (the marina where our boat’s berthed) has all the outlet shops for Ralph Lauren, Hugo Boss, Ted Baker, GAP etc. Restraining myself was incredibly hard and took a huge amount of will power. I had to tear myself away from GAP and a silver sequined skirt that fitted like a glove(I actually hid it behind a pile of clothes incase I wanted to come back for it later this week). We literally have the marina outside our front door. The boat is pretty much parked inside the wharf- I walk out the boat and can fall into Ted Baker (or fall out Tiger Tiger/The Slug and Lettuce and into the boat...). 

View of the marina as I step off the passarail. Tiger Tiger on the right...

View of boat from the shops

On watch today so spent the day polishing silver (thrilling). Cape Town soon- cannot wait! Beach, sun, driving a car, sushi and wine at Wakame, wedding, Christmas, Tiger Tiger and seeing all my favourite people (yes that’s you). Lots of loves, see you soon!