Week 33 - One Daily Positive and Project 365

The negatives

Although I know I can't buy souvenirs and send a postcard to Stephanie it's still upset me. Migraines and food choices.

The positives

I've managed a couple of runs while we've been in Crete, it's been hot and my time has been improving.

Saturday 15 August It's the day of the Virgin Mary in Greece and we were advised that many places may be closed and the roads busy, so we opted to spend the day on the beach. It was very windy and the sea was rough so we went to the harbour beach which is sheltered but there were no sun loungers. I did have a swim and spent a bit of time beach combing for litter after getting attacked in the water by a bag for life. I prefer to have my main meal during the day and Peter had a bowl of soup. Back to the hotel for the afternoon in the pool and reading. Down to the village for dinner for Peter and I had a cocktail and a dessert. Walked back in the dark and watched some TV.

Sunday 16 August I don't join Peter for breakfast as I can't eat much, so I have tea and and cereal or yogurt and fruit in the room. We then walked into the village for coffee and were back poolside by 11am as it was too windy for the beach. We had snacks throughout the day and at 6pm we headed back into the village for dinner at a restaurant over looking the harbour. Back to the hotel at 9pm. Dinner really is a relaxed affair. 

Monday 17 August Our last day trip and off to Chania on the west of the island. A beautiful and colourful City with so much to see and do and of course a Starbucks. we didn't have a lunch, but I'd taken a gluten free sandwich and Peter bought one and we walked around eating them. I also found a gluten free cake shop and bought a rose flavoured cake that we took down to a park near the sea to eat. On the 90 minute drive back we stopped at Koumos Lake for a swim, there are fresh water turtles there and a variety of restaurants where we had some cold drinks and explored local potteries also. We were dropped in the village, enjoyed dinner and saw an amazing bright red sunset, before walking back to the hotel.

Tuesday 18 August A lie in as I woke with a migraine and I needed time for my tablets to take effect. We went out for a coffee and sat in the shade watching the world go by. I then went for a swim in the sea while Peter watched the bags and then back to the hotel to laze by the pool. Back to the room around 2pm for a late lunch and a rest, then into the village in the evening for dinner. It's getting hard to find something to eat every night without repeating the same thing. I miss just being able to have a jacket potato or a toasted sandwich.

Wednesday 19 August After breakfast we caught the bus to Rethymno and explored the the fortress and the old town. It was really hot today as there was no cloud cover or breeze. I had gluten free pasta for lunch, there were lots of drink stops and after we got back to our village I stopped off for a coffee and Peter returned to the hotel to get a spot by the pool. I joined him and we read for a couple of hours, with me floating on my giant inflatable. We then returned to the room and watched TV while doing our packing and in bed around 11pm.

Thursday 20 August We had a lie in and checked out around 11am, leaving our cases in the hotel and wandered down to the village for a coffee, dropping off the books we'd read in a lending library which was a shelf on a wall in the street. I had a swim in the sea and we had a late lunch and returned to the hotel for a swim in the pool and to read our books. We were given another room we could use able to shower off and get changed and spent the evening reading our books on the veranda waiting for the bus to pick us upper our transfer back to the airport and our flight home. Smooth collection on time, if you've flown in and out of holiday airports you'll know what I mean when I say it was a long wait. CSKA Sofa football team were there after their match against Crete in the Europa League, they caused a bit of a stir because no one knew who they were but had loads of security. I just googled their kit sponsor and football and fixture list and word got round lol.

Friday 21 August A good flight home, we dozed a little but no real sleep. landed at 4am, bags, got a train to New Street and had a coffee while we waited 30 mins for the first train home. I left Peter at the station while I fetched the car for the cases. The cat pleased to see us, case unpacked, everything in the wash, had a bath and we both had 3-4 hours sleep then went out for a food shop. Deforsted a home made curry from the freezer and Peter put dinner together while watered the pots, most of the garden is dead, but we do have a glut of tomatoes and peppers. Whilst we ate we caught up with some TV. I then went round the neighbours to fetch the cat home, several times, the kids brought her back several times. I was in bed by 9pm.

On the blog this week:

Post Comment Love - Link up with any post written this week

Word of the week - Colourful in Crete

My garden in August Part 1

Managing a food diet on holiday - Gluten Free

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Managing a food diet on holiday - Gluten Free

Managing any diet is tricky, you can't rely on eating the same things over and over without checking as manufactures regularly change ingredients as I've found out to my expense and restaurants often don't know what they're doing and the servers often don't understand how an allergy and cross contamination can affect you.

Yes, I can hear you, they should, yes, you've had training, but it's not everyone and when it's not just mild bloating or discomfort and can land you in hospital as is often the case with me, it is very serious, in some cases with allergies it can lead to death. For me it's an intolerance and cross contamination doesn't affect me, however a build up can. And at the end of the day it is MY responsibility to check it out and if I can't or I'm in any doubt, I just don't eat and lack of food can make me poorly as well with migraines.

So here we are on holiday for 2 weeks in Crete, eating out every day.

I have two weeks worth of breakfast cereal, porridge oats and I brought bread rolls and biscuits and crackers with me. We have a fridge and small freezer in the room and have bought cheese, fresh fruit and salads as well as tins of tuna and I brought a cool bag, picnic cutlery, plates and a small kettle, milk frother and take away pots so I can make sandwiches, salads, lunches etc for the day. But the room is NOT self catering.

On our 2nd day here we booked a trip into the city for day 5 so I'd be able to stock up on some gluten free products as the shops in the village where we are staying don't stock any alternatives, other than products that don't contain gluten. I'm fortunate that it's only wheat gluten I can't eat, so we bought some Ryvita to eat with the salads.

We're eating a main meal out every evening and there are some amazing restaurants to choose from, I think we've eaten in everyone the village has to offer. But not one of the restaurants has been able to offer anything gluten free unless it has been naturally gluten free and if the meal has had a sauce, we've not been able to establish if it contains gluten or wheat flour and even with the help from google translate and our phones we haven't had much luck. So unless the meal has been plain (looking at the pictures) I've not ordered it) then every single meal has been served dripping in butter, oils, covered in herbs and that's caused me stress as I've also got gall bladder stones and have been avoiding surgery with a well managed diet and being gluten free causes gall bladder issues, so I have to avoid fats and red meat and ice cream and watermelon and this country is nothing but all the above.

We found a restaurant in a local town that was able to swop out the pasta for gluten free, but it's over an hour away by bus and I don't want to eat the same thing every night. We'll be going back again before we go home.

But I have found plenty of fresh fish to eat and have managed to communicate 'no lemon' no herbs, no oils' I like to taste the fish.

I love sea food in anything and everything and this is the most amazing risotto ever and I don't care how rude I am when I grab my plate and move it away from the parmesan as they try to shovel it over without asking me.

Grilled vegetables will always be eaten and I love balsamic vinegar thankfully, but again, why isn't it listed as an ingredient?

My hunt for gluten free puddings and cakes led us to a shop in Chania that didn't disappoint, initially. They had 3 cakes to choice from, rather than the standard pre wrapped brownie.

Sadly though, it turned out to be a mousse and was chocolate caramel and not rose flavoured, the only rose thing about it was the rose petal that wasn't edible.

And whilst I can't eat the watermelon, sometimes there is cantaloupe melon on offer.

And there is always room for an ice lolly.

I get so disheartened with eating, full stop. I can always find something to eat when we're out, but it's not the same as looking at a menu and deciding what I want to eat. I have to discount all the pastas and pizzas, anything with a sauce, then of course I have preferences, we all do.

I'm looking forward to getting home and being able to prepare my own foods. Eating out for 2 weeks has been difficult and hard work with a food intolerance, it's not just as simple as avoiding gluten,  it''s about making sure my diet is balanced and I'm not just eating junk food which always seems to be the alternative, filling up on crisps and chocolates.

Our next holiday will defiantly be self catering eating out for two weeks is just too long with dietary requirements. 

Word of the week - Crete

Crete

Such a beautiful island and definitely somewhere I would come and visit again, although we do try and see as much of everywhere we can when we holiday as if it is the only time we visit. We are staying in Panormo, almost in the centre of the Island on the north coast, half way between the two airport. Chania in the west and Heraklion where we flew into in the East. 

Cost

Having priced up a fortnight in our campervan with awning to be near the beach coming in at around £1000 and then still having to use communal showers, we decided to book a last minute holiday to Crete for not that much more including flights and transfers with Tui.

Cases

In our cases I packed an extension cable as the plugs are never anywhere near the bed and there are never enough, but we've got plenty in this this hotel and there's even a light over the mirror. I also brought with me a pool float from Aldi that was £5.99. They're on sale here around €20. I packed beach towels bought on a previous trip to Greece and a bath mat for the shower room. We've got 9 books between us and I'm already 4 down.

Clothing

I've packed shorts, t shirts, 2 dresses, swim wear and one set of running gear and packed in cubes. It's all been worn. The beach shoes have been invaluable as the beach is rocky, flip flops as slippers in the room and for going down to breakfast. Both pairs of Birkenstocks to match my outfits and and the trainers for travelling in.

Catering

We're bed and breakfast, but have a small fridge/freezer in the room and we brought a small water boiler and a battery operated whisk so I can make lattes using our espresso maker. I also packed some breakfast cereals, bread rolls and biscuits as I'm gluten free and found a bakers in Heraklion on a day trip and purchased bread and a cake for the second week. We eat out once a day, fish and salads and the other meal is salads with tuna, cheese that we also make up into picnics with fresh fruits and crisps etc using ice blocks made with frozen sponges in zip lock bags and freezing our water bottles. We found a restaurant that made me some gluten free pasta.

Coach Trips and Culture

We booked three coach trips as we discovered on arrival that the Train Station as advertised by Tui 1000ms from the hotel was an actual bus stop for the 20kms to the centre. 

The centre being Rethymno. There is a bus that runs every 30 minutes and tickets are bought from a little shop, you need to buy 2 for each journey and it's called the No 20 Hotel bus. It's a beautiful town with everything you need, an old town and harbour, market on a Thursday, a more modern shopping area and beaches.

Our first coach trip was out to Knossos, the trip was badly organised with a late collection, we had to queue for our own tickets which took almost 40 minutes as the cruise ships were in on the Tuesday and  the tour guide changed the collection time but didn't inform us and took no ownership, then made an announcement on the coach at the end of the trip thanking those for the positivity for not spoiling his day. 

Knossos was absolutely packed, you could hardly move for us tourists. Heraklion city was beautiful, we had 3 and half hours, enough time to explore the Venetian Harbour, have lunch, wander round the shops, sort out some banking, buy souvenirs, get Peter a couple of new t shirts without logos on, find the gluten free bakery, check out some historic sites and grab a Starbucks.

The second trip was a 4 hour hike in Imbros Gorge and a swim in the Libyan sea.

The third trip is to Chania next week. I'll let you know how that goes. We are wondering if we will bump into our neighbours who are there. Peter's oldest friend's daughter is staying not far from us also.

Coast

Our immediate beach is not a good one, it looks pretty and calm but you need to be a strong swimmer just getting out. I am, but without a life guard or other people around I'm not prepared to take the risk and just me and Peter in the shallow water up to our waists we really struggled with the power of the waves getting out as it was rocky and slippy under foot. It was also a very steep and shaley route to get to the beach and access was through another property and a broken fence, not like the images shown on the Tui website. As we can't travel round the Island as we'd hoped forth beach has now become a bit of a priority for the second week and there is a lot more walking to do to access the one in the village.

Cats

Absolutely everywhere and very well cared for, as are all of the islands animals. Sheep, donkeys, dogs and goats and there are so many adverts on local TV, radio and posters around the towns and cities.

Calamity

Thankfully we flew from Birmingham the day before the luggage fiasco, where people waited several days to be reunited with their luggage, the shut down and re routing of flights from Bristol and the problems on the M25 with fires that delayed people getting to Heathrow along with train disruptions over the weekend and the eruption of Etna causing flights to be cancelled.

Post Comment Love - 14th-16th August 2026

Welcome back to #PoCoLo with Stephanie from Bosworth.Life and I.

Post Comment Love #PoCoLo is a friendly weekly linky where you can link up any blog post you've written this week. If you're new or a regular visitor we're sure you'll find something of interest.

Please leave a comment with the host you link up with and we'd also appreciate your help spreading the #PoCoLo word on Twitter/X tag us and we'll RT. You can find us here: Stephanie - @BosworthLife and Suzanne - @ChickenRuby Please also add our badge to your post.

I'll be catching up with reading your posts, sharing and commenting over the next few days. 

Peter and I are in Crete for a last minute holiday. The temperatures are the same here as they are back home at the moment but the paddling pool in the garden just wasn't doing it for us. Here we have a pool and access to the beach and are totally chilled out reading, drinking coffee, going out on trips, shopping, exploring ancient sites and eating the freshest of foods.

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Week 31 2026 One Daily Positive and Project 365

The negatives

I'm absolutely shattered from burning the candle at both ends, jobs around the house and garden, going out and sorting things out.

The positives

Having reached out and said I was struggling and bumping into a friend, plus son's paperwork emergency issue, I've had a good week with friends, getting out and getting on with things and feeling much more positive. I've been much more receptive to suggestions from Peter and I've also been much more relaxed and chilled out.

Saturday 1st August A lazy day all round. I finally got up at midday and we went into town. The well had been dressed. We picked up a few things for our holiday. Home to root through the attic and desks to try and track down some paperwork for child 3 in Australia which I know I gave him several years ago. After tidying up everything, which included paperwork in the dining room, the lounge and the loft, we had dinner, the garden was watered and we watched Amazon Prime and I dealt with some idiotic responses on Twitter/X.

Sunday 2nd August Craft room rearranged as I had to get into the loft space to access child 3's keep sake box to prove to him the paperwork I'd given him a few years ago, that he has since lost in a house move, was most definitely not in my possession any more. A load washing on the line, stuff sorted for our holiday and we spent the rest of the day at Witley Court an English Heritage Site. late afternoon spent watching Scarpetta on Amazon, followed by dinner, garden watered and some tidying up done and into bed by 10pm after finding online copies of the documents son needs to discover he had the originals all along, he just didn't recognise them.

Monday 3 August Peter dropped me in town and I went for a coffee, got some stamps and sorted out my travel insurance and a parking ticket. I managed to get the price reduced by 50% from £100 as I explained it was when the dealership registered the car to the wrong address and the neighbour had opened the post and just thrown it and the reminder away. I did accept full responsibility and said I'd chased it up as soon as I'd found out. it was very kind of them to do it for me. I then had a manicure and pedicure, popped to the post office and Peter met me and I had another coffee and it was home for a late lunch and the rest of the day in the garden digging up weeds, cutting back shrubs, while Peter sifted through the soil in the back and wheel narrowing it to the front to finish levelling up the front lawn. The next door neighbour, followed by the neighbour over the road joined us for a chat. I tidied and swept up and got ready for an hours spinfit. Peter had dinner ready and after dealing with a complete breakdown of the 4 way traffic light system outside our house with photos and an email to Cadent as the local slimming world group were just driving out when they fancied and had parked inside the roadworks without working out whose turn it was causing total chaos, we watched TV and then Peter watered the garden and I restored the loft rooms after the paperwork debacle of the weekend. In bed by 10pm. The Theatre of Inconvenience. The Worlds Smallest Theatre.

Tuesday 4 August A lovely, relaxing day. I met two of my friends for brunch, came home to do a lot of tidying and packing and sorting through paperwork. Back into town in the afternoon to get my hair cut by my friend who is a stylist and then we went for coffee. I got home at 7pm. We watched TV and got to bed late. Wondering why we're going on holiday when the weather has been so lovely and we live in such a beautiful place.

Wednesday 5 August We got up, hung washing on the line and went out for coffee to Worcester and stocked up on cat food. Home and pottered around tying up a few loose ends. Suitcases repacked to sort the weight limit out and hand luggage packed. I cleaned the downstairs toilet and the back room ready for the cat. I went out to the retail park to buy some gluten free biscuits and bread rolls for the first few days of our holiday, then had a coffee as I was early for the gym. Peter cleaned the house. I popped round the neighbours to pick up my water bottle. We're all going to Crete on our holidays, about an hour apart, will be funny if we bump into one another while we're away. We watched TV in the evening and I did some blogging and it was another late night after giving the garden a good watering as there is no rain forecast while we are away.

Thursday 6 August Quite a lot of hanging around. I took a walk to the post box and dropped off the contents from the fridge with the neighbour and we made our way to the translation with the car and our cases. I then drove home and walked back to the station.We caught the train to Birmingham airport and had 2 hours to wait ahead of check in and it took about 90 minutes to clear security so we were nicely relaxed ahead of our flight to Crete. It was an uneventful flight, with luggage arriving on time and a smooth transfer an hour away to our hotel. We arrived around 3am local time and our key and welcome note was in reception and we made our own way to our room.

Friday 7 August We set the alarm to wake at 8am (6am UK time) so we could have breakfast, then went back to bed for a couple of hours and slept. We then walked into the nearby town around 10 mins away, which is in an old fishing harbour, passing a selection of restaurants, coffee shops, souvenir shops and cat feeding areas. It's a really pretty town, there's a water park here and lots to do for the next two weeks. We collected some information for some trips and bus routes and bought some basics for snacks and dinner for the evening to eat back in our room, plus some water and juices etc. I went back to sleep for a couple of hours and Peter sat on the balcony. We then explored the local beach area, but I declared it too hot so went back to the room to get myself something to eat while Peter sat by the pool. I joined him later for a quick swim. By 6pm we were back in the room, reading and just chilling out for the evening.

On the blog this week:

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Word of the week - Preparation

The best bits of July 2026

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A weekend in Paris 2026

I've just returned from my annual trip to trip to Paris to visit my friend Dorette who flew in from South Africa a few days early ahead of a work trip to the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.

Our first meet up was in June 2024 then in June 2025 so now it's an annual trip. We used to meet up annually in South Africa after becoming friends in 2011 when we lived there for 4 years with me making several trips back each year after we left, but covid put a stop to that and between 2020 and 2023 we didn't see each other. The visits to South Africa resume this year also. 

On previous trips we've packed in as much as possible and booked loads of attractions, having booked things weeks in advance as everything books up so quickly and without booking you either queue for hours or just can't get in.

On this trip we decided to chance as there had been changes to when we were flying and with the predicted heat spell we weren't sure what we would have time for.

As it turned out it was way to hot to be out between 12pm and 6pm so that time was spent eating lunch and drinking cocktails near our apartment then sleeping the afternoon away before going back out in the evenings. The temps were in the high 30s, the sun didn't set till almost 10pm and the balcony afforded us wonderful views of the city including free firework displays lasting almost half an hour and an amazing thunderstorm on the Saturday.

You can see the Eiffel Tower from everywhere in Paris. 

We watched the light show from our balcony, however the only place in Paris where we couldn't see the tower itself as it was blocked by Montparnasse. 

We videoed called in two of our friends in South Africa and one asked if we'd made the booking on Temu after seeing the lift that we'd crammed into. It was literally just big enough for the two of us and we joked that we could pick our own way to die and method of body disposal as the entire building was covered in plastic and we didn't hear or see anyone for our entire stay.

We checked out LA CAVERNE DU PONT NEUF. Walk through art on Pont Neuf Bridge. It looks like a giant ice berg floating on the Seine.

Climbed to the top of the Arc De Triomphe at sunset.

Checked out The Louvre from above and below ground.

And checked out the views of Notre Dame after lunch at our favourite restaurant.

Every yaar we meet at a random train station as we arrive at different times, a photo gets sent of what we can see, with a description of where we are and the other replies with a rough eta. It works for us and so far we've both arrived within minutes of each other.