After a tumultuous few months, mère flitting off to the sun on a permanent basis, selling off the majority of my possessions & finding someone trustworthy to look after Mr Pig, I finally packed my over-sized rucksack & hopped on a flight out of England just over a week ago, for the last time in what could be a long time.
My first stop was Guernsey, in the Channel Islands, to spend time with my famille over my birthday.
Yes, you could argue that this isn't really getting out of the UK, but considering you can't spend Guernsey money in the UK, the laws are different & you generally get free parking, I'm still considering it my first stop.
Despite spending all my summers in Guernsey, as a child, & even being christened there, eight years had passed since my last visit & so I was keen to return.
My grandparents collected me from the airport & I stayed with them for the duration of my stay. They've lived in their house for nearly thirty years & it hasn't changed a bit from when I was last there. The same comforting smell, shell ornaments & the most beautiful & extensive garden.
My grandpa grows all manor of fruit & vegetables & every meal time consists of something from the garden. Breakfast was toast, made with bread, my grandma baked herself & atop it was laden with jam, also made by my grandma, with fruit grown by my grandpa in the garden. Nothing goes to waste.
We drove around the island a lot & took in the sights. The sea views are wonderfully scenic. On my birthday grandma & I took the small boat over to Herm island for the day. It's very beautiful, but very small. They have a few eateries, lovely beaches, a couple of gift shops & plenty of steep hills to climb.
Herm hosts a lot of visitors that stay in the campsites or rent the cottages out. I think, if the weather was hot & sunny, I could definitely spend a week there, just strolling through the woodlands & lounging on the beach.
On the Saturday my brother came to pick me up & we went into town for lunch. It was lovely seeing him, as it'd been over two years since he last visited me in England & I missed him a lot. We caught up with each others gossip, had a stroll through town, ate some gelato & then went back to his new home, which is amazing! The bathroom alone made me want to stay!
Later in the evening we went into town for dinner & cocktails & then met up with his girlfriend, who was out celebrating her birthday, from earlier in the week. Guernsey's nightlife is a new experience for me, I was only young when I lived there & although I was eighteen the last time I visited, I had gone over with mère, so partying wasn't really on the agenda.
We went to a place called the Townhouse, which was packed with people raving out to electro & techno. Myself, dressed in a tux jacket, felt like a spanner in the corner. The last time I went out to a rave I was in my own drug fueled world. Stone cold sober, getting elbowed, isn't the one
It's also worth adding how attractive men, turn so very unattractive, when dodgy dance moves are employed & woman need to be more aware of back fat & pot bellies when dressing. I saw far too many unsightly dressed, drunken girls, stumbling around. Literally puts me off drinking entirely!
Guernsey has changed so much since I was young. Now there are a lot of foreigners, teenage mothers & a large dent of the population are even on benefits, which I wasn't even aware you could get in Guernsey! But, the narrow roads, views of the sea & simple way of life, are all still as beautiful as they were when I was a child.
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