Self Catering holiday to mainland Greece. The good and the bad.

Bare in mind my starting point for all holidays is Dubai and we live 3km from the Marina and beach. The ideal/perfect holiday destination for a lot of people. Holidaying though in Dubai is very different from living there. A week or two in a foreign country on vacation does not give you a feel for what life is like living there, even if you go to the same place every year. I've applied that logic to our vacation in Greece, but having lived abroad for the past 8 years I do tend to visit new places with the view of 'what would it be like to live there?' We moved to South Africa without visiting first and to Dubai after a weeks holiday.

I had expectations of Greece through other people's instagram and face book updates. When I googled 'Holidays in Greece' up came hundreds of blue and white domed houses as well as images of long white sandy beaches. Maybe it's because we stayed on the mainland and not on one of the islands that it was all very different.

I purposely deselected 'family fun' and 'evening entertainment' yet we still ended up on packed beaches, 10 sun beds deep with music pumping and disturbances well past midnight.

The accommodation was disappointing also. Although it's been a long time since we had a self catering holiday, I had hoped things had improved, but the apartment did not match the online description and whilst it was clean and tidy, it did lack some decoration and equipment to qualify as self catering. There was a two ring hob, kettle and fridge, there was also very basic cutlery and crockery, no peeler, cork screw/bottle opener or sharp knife to prepare even a simple salad. The apartment slept 4 and if I had been travelling with children I would've needed more in the kitchen. The shower, whilst technically fitting the description was actually just a hose and a shower curtain. I ended up sitting in the tray to actually wash as I couldn't hold the shower head, not stick to the curtain and wash my hair at the same time. There were plenty of towels and hand soap in the bathroom but we had to buy toilet paper on day 2.

I had expected more and for what we had paid we could've stayed in a hotel further out and driven to the beach each day. As it was, whilst the beach was only a 9 min walk away and 'mostly flat' it was at the bottom of a very steep slope and as we'd hired a car for the holiday, we drove to another beach in a little village each day.

Whilst the people were very friendly, the area we stayed in was very expensive and rather run down. It took a long time to recover from seeing children as young as 10 being sold alcohol and tobacco, the open trash cans in the streets, which smell, the amount of real fur being sold and the number of stray and injured dogs, as well as being pestered at every restaurant by stray cats.

All in all I won't be visiting Greece again, it didn't live up to my expectations, although we did have a relaxing holiday just chilling out, reading, snorkelling and some of the most fantastic fish we've ever had. Here are some of the more 'instagrammable' photos.

The Wedding series - tips

This year we've had 2 weddings, child 2 and 2a in June, best friends in July and our niece is getting married in October. I've also been helping with the planning of child 4 and 4a's wedding next September.

L-R Mother in Law, Child 4 & 4a, Peter, Child 2a & 2, Me, Child 1, Child 5, Mum.

Child 3 & 3a were unable to make it over from Australia.

Weddings are BLOODY expensive. There are ways though to keep the costs down. As a guest the cost mounts up, especially for Peter and I, before we even buy our outfit and a gift we have to book flights from where we live in Dubai. However, we had a very small wedding at a registry office, I wore a prom dress to get married in, bought in the sales in Vegas, Peter needed a new suit for work anyway, we had a 3 night for the price of 2 hotel deal in Chester, no reception, no photographer and no cake, although 3 sets of friends turned up to surprise us and we had a meal afterwards in an Italian restaurant on the way back to the car park.

There are so many new things to think about these days that we never had to worry about and the main one for me is that guests don't share photos online during the day and that they leave the Bride and Groom to post first a few days afterwards. It also makes for a nicer day if the wedding is social media free, the wedding photographer will certainly appreciate being able to take photo's freely without mobile phones blocking their view. There are so many new ways to share photo's in high resolution with the guests and I found an app that would allow photo's to be shared on app so family and friends who can't make the day can still share in the event. Child 3 and 3a were unable to travel over from Australia for Child 2 and 2a's wedding.

So after the initial shock of 2 of the children announcing they were getting married and a bank transfer made, it was time to find out if and what input we were to have. We're now someone's in laws and so far I think it's going reasonably well.

Both Peter and I are step parents to each others children. We needed to establish our roles as step parents at our children weddings. At child 2's wedding his mother wasn't invited so no worries about the top table, but child 4's father will be at his wedding but it is Peter who will sit at the top table with me. These are all issues that have to be resolved before the big day when it comes to family and the modern day dynamics.

Then of course there was the outfits. I can hardly wear the same dress at all 4 weddings? Well technically I could but as 3 of them are family do's, I really didn't want to appear in all the photos dressed the same. Living in Dubai there are some fantastic sales and I bought the outfit for the first 2 weddings in Debenhams. There isn't a lot of stuff available for the Mother of the Groom, everywhere focuses on the Mother of the Bride and I fall into 'occasional wear'

There's also the wedding gift to account for. When I asked the internet about what was a reasonable gift amount, it varied greatly.

Something I've noticed quite a lot is there often isn't a 'plus 1' on invites anymore. Usually the invitation is addressed to a couple, whether married or not. There have been quite a few single guests at both the weddings and at wedding number 2, I spent most of the day on my own as Peter was the Best Man, I searched to find out what my role as Wife of the Best Man was, but only came across the partners moaning about how they felt it unfair they sat on their own all day and in some cases turned the invite down, so I wrote about how single guests can feel more involved and not so isolated.

We've got one more wedding this year, the reception is being held in a barn in a field. I've selected my outfit based on the potential weather and it will look great with my bright yellow hunter wellies should it rain.

Next year's wedding is taking place under one roof and I can certainly see the advantages of doing this.

A couple of these posts contain sponsored content, but as I was already writing posts about the wedding and like I said with mounting costs, every penny helps, especially when there are 3 in 1 year.

Just how instagramable is Greece?

We've just returned from a holiday in Greece, we picked Greece due to the flight time and availability for me from the UK and Peter from Dubai. Neither of us have been to the mainland before and Peter hasn't been to the islands for 35 years. 
I didn't really do much research other than accommodation and car hire, which was based on price as well as avoiding 'family fun' and 'great entertainment' We were meeting in Greece to have a break, a rest, chill out on the beach and read a couple of books, enjoy the food and local beer. We weren't there to party. As soon as I arrived at the airport and saw the number of tour guides and buses, I knew we'd booked the wrong place.

We're also not beach goers really and with our starting point being that we live in Dubai which for a lot of people is a dream holiday destination and we're slightly spoiled when it comes to beaches and resorts and from seeing the gorgeous images that pop up on google when you search 'holidays to Greece' and knowing a little about the architecture, the buildings and aware of the recent economical situation, I was very disappointed when we arrived. It took a while to get over children purchasing alcohol and tobacco and all the real fur for sale.

It's been a long time since we've had a self catering holiday, most of our travel since the kids have left home are in hotels or staying with friends. But had we had the kids with us, they'd have loved it there. 

I didn't take many photo's. The beach pictures showed sun beds 5 rows deep, crowded beaches and other people, other people trying to recreate the pictures they'd seen on Instagram all trying to capture a unique beach experience.

Look closely and you'll see in the centre of the photo a couple recreating the same photo hundreds of people take on the beach, the woman in the white bikini, then had hers taken with her boyfriend. 

So is Greece instagramable? Yes of course it is, you just have to look hard. We captured a sun set and a few other selfies, as well as pictures from the restaurant terrace and of course our food.

You can click on any of the links below if you're interested in seeing more of the construction projects and unusual buildings I've seen around the world, most of them are in Dubai and I'll be back there next week to see how much has changed in the 3+ months I've been in the UK.

Week 158 Dubai Bluewater Islands and Dubai Eye. Man made island a 210m high Big Wheel
Week 159 Dubai Dubai Marina - Reflections
Week 160 Dubai Dubai Frame. A window between the Old and New Dubai and a 150m high glass floor.

Week 161 Dubai Dubai Marina 3 years apart.

Week 162 Dubai Dubai Water Canal Bridge Construction and reconfiguration of roads

Week 163 Dubai New Metro Line for Expo 2020
Week 164 Arizona and Nevada Hoover Dam 2002 - 2010
Week 165 Dubai Dubai Opera House What a difference a year makes
Week 166 Dubai Unfinished buildings. The Pentominium
Week 167 Coventry Mixing the old and the new. Coventry Catherdral
Week 168 Dubai New Dubai Metro Station 
Week 169 Dubai The new extension of the Dubai Mall and Burj Khalifa 
Week 170 Dubai Hotel fire After the Address fire 
Week 171 Dubai Unusual designs The Opus Building
Week 172 Dubai District Cooling. Keeping the desert cool.
Week 173 Dubai Can I visit the Burj Al Arab
Week 174 Dubai The Almas Tower
Week 175 Dubai The Cayan Tower
Week 176 Toronto The CN Tower
Week 177 Nevada The Paris Hotel 
Week 178 Dubai Ibn Battuta Gate
Week 179 A Wedding
Week 180 Dubai The World's Tallest Tower
Week 181 Dubai and Wales Al Fahidi Fort and Chepstow Castle 
Week 182 Dubai New Metro Station in Al Furjan 
Week 183 Dubai Ski Dubai
Week 184 Another Wedding
Week 185 South Africa Life in a township
Week 186 Austria Ski Jump 
Week 187 Dubai Green Plant Bio Dome 
Week 188 Dubai Update on the Metro Station
Week 189 Dubai My view from the balcony changed in 8 months

One Daily Positive Week 34 A week in Greece

Well Greece hasn't been everything I'd thought it was cracked up to be, in terms of what I've seen of other peoples photos and from online, but we're staying on the beach on the mainland near Thessaloniki.

It's been a long time since we've had a self catering holiday, rather than staying in hotels and if I'm honest, it really isn't for me. I'm also not really a beach person and while there are some historic sites to visit, they're not really aimed at tourists.

231 Sunday Drove south for an hour and found a lovely exclusive beach restaurant where we had lunch than swam and snorkelled for the afternoon, spent the evening in a local bar watching the football and drinking beer.

232 Monday Visited the city of Thessaloniki, about an hours drive away, drank coffee, had lunch, explored some ancient sites and returned to the apartment to drink beer and read our books.

233 Tuesday Spent the morning on a packed beach, had lunch, showered and drove to another area about an hour away, had a walk, dinner and watched the sunset.

234 Wednesday Drove over to the beech on the opposite side of the coast only 15 mins away, much nicer over there, less people and more sun beds and shade available. Had a free dinner in the evening after the waitress threw a glass of red wine over Peter.

235 Thursday Back to the same beach as yesterday after a lie in and leisurely breakfast in the apartment. Had an afternoon nap then out for dinner, not impressed with my sea bass as I had to fillet it myself.

236 Friday I started the long journey home, an hour to the airport. I flew 2 hours ahead of Peter as I was returning to the UK and him to Dubai. My plane landed half an hour after the coach departed so I stayed in a hotel for the night.

237 Saturday Up early for breakfast, showered and repacked, blogged, drank coffee at the airport and arrived back in South Wales at 7pm.

On the blog this week:

Then and Now - How the view from the balcony has changed with the building of the new metro station.

How much should you give as a wedding gift? We will have had 3 weddings to attend by the end of this year.

The role of the Best Man's wife at a wedding - Tips to make you feel more included.

Speedy boarding with EasyJet - making the most of the hand luggage allowance.

Post Comment Love #PoCoLo 24-26 August

Welcome to Post Comment Love (#PoCoLo).  Same linky as usual for all bloggers to link up their favourite post of the week.  Just in a different place.  Morgan is on her holidays at Walt Disney World so I'm co-hosting in August to help Stephanie.  

I'm flying home from Greece today back to Manchester. Peter is returning to Dubai, someone has to work and it isn't me. Due to flight times and public transport, I'm spending the next 24 hours in an airport hotel. I land at 1.50pm, the coach for South Wales departs at 1.20pm, bad planning? Not really, it was the only option for the flight and the coach.

The bikini was worn, but I didn't feel comfortable in it, nothing moved or fell out, but I'm not really a  bikini person.

I'm really getting the hang of this travel with hand luggage only now. The liquids are proving a bit of an issue, someone needs to invent square/rectangular bottles, it's almost impossible to pack in a 20x20cm ziplock bag. There's no way I'd be able to take the max 1 litre allowance in 10 x 100ml bottles.

I joined in with the #PoCoLo linky a couple of years ago and it's been great to meet a variety of bloggers and connect with a wider audience.

Blogger Showcase: This week is the turn of Ffion from The Untitled Blog. Ffion blogs over on tumblr about writing, photography and all her random thoughts. She's a tea and biscuit person and loves nights out bowling and nights in with a good movie. You can read more about Ffion over on Stephanie's post 

An InLinkz Link-up

How much do you give as a gift for a wedding?

Now I prefer a gift list.

One that varies in prices.

I can take my pick, purchase and present the Bride and Groom with a gift.

But in the modern day, most couples have been living together for a while before tying the knot and usually have everything for their home already.

So that just leaves cash or a voucher.

On average in the UK, we spend about £44 per person on a wedding present, versus the happy couple's expectation of just £30.

Over on Mumsnet people suggest £50 for a friend and a £100 family.

Somehow a £50 gift feels more than £50 cash. 

I asked twitter their opinion for a wedding where Peter was best man and for his nieces wedding this September. The results varied from £50 up to £200 for both. We made a decision, we could have afforded more, but just because we can doesn't mean we should. 

For child 2 and 4, we gave a cash donation for their actual wedding. We gave 2 money to spend on his honeymoon, we'll do the same for 4 as an extra gift.

Have you been to a wedding recently? Was there a gift list or a request for cash/vouchers? Have you got married recently? What was the average amount of cash/cost of gift you received?

The role of the Best Man's Wife at a wedding

My husband was Best Man at a wedding last month. Whilst researching his role, I noticed a lot of discussion from the partners of the Best Man, from tips on how to avoid feeling isolated to people actually saying they didn’t attend the wedding as they didn’t want to be on their own all day.

As close friends of the Bride and Groom and the Grooms family, I attended the wedding rehearsal, sat in the front row with the Groom’s mother, sat on a table with the Usher and his wife near the top table and the night before the wedding the Groom stayed with us over night.

We had a lovely day, met new people, met up with old friends, ate, drunk and were (very) merry.

I’m a social person, I love a chat and to meet new people. It doesn’t mean to say that there aren’t times when I feel isolated or lonely or even find the people I’m with hard work, there are always people I find hard work, but I’m good at spotting them early on and sticking with like minded people.

It got me thinking though about the people I came across online who felt isolated, knew no one or even stayed away from the wedding of their partners best mate.

I’ve been a plus one at many weddings, where my husband has known either the bride or groom and I’ve only known my husband. When I was a maid of honour at a friends wedding, my husband knew the bride, the groom and the brides family also, so his day rolled along the same lines as mine did when he was best man.

There are things you can do though to ensure you don't feel too isolated on the actual day.

• Suggest that you meet with the Bride and Groom for a meal a month or so before their big day. Difficult if you have to travel to the wedding, but you could take part in a Skype call.

• Ask your partner to have a word with the Bride and Groom about seating arrangements for the wedding reception. Can you be seated with people you know or paired up with another single guest?

• Offer to take on a role during the day; is there an elderly relative who might need some support?

• Accompany your partner to the wedding rehearsal, I made friends with the verger and met the Usher and his wife, the bridesmaid and her family, which meant there are people to talk to whilst waiting for the guests and bride to arrive and during the reception.

Do you have any suggestions on how not to feel isolated at a wedding where your partner plays a role in the ceremony? Do you do anything extra at your wedding to accommodate single guests?

One Daily Positive - Week 33

The summer has raced by, I've achieved so much, but it's coming to an end and before I know it, I'll be back home in Dubai.

Sounds ok some downtime, but my life alternates between super, hyper busy, surrounded by people to just me with nothing to do.

I've opened new Instagram @onedailypositive and Twitter @1dailypositive accounts for my #onedailypositive. I was getting fed up with family and friends commenting on my life, but not to me, word always gets back. Funny how most people have raced over to follow me there #FOMO I think. I used a phone number to set the account up and deselected fb contacts, but it appears as the 2 accounts run off the same phone it means everyone can I see I have a new account. How annoying?

MacBook Air now only works when on charge, full back up done and a new one will be purchased soon.

224 Sunday Said goodbye to Mary and the whirlwind, did the washing, remade the beds, packed for Greece as it's raining here the rest of the week. Went up mums for lunch with the family a Moving Tea party for my sister and niece who are moving to Gloucestershire next week. It was Child 2's bday and him and 2a came back to the flat afterwards before meeting friends at the cinema. When waving them off I spotted this lovely rainbow.

225 Monday I didn't wake till 9.30am, pottered around till mid day, went for coffee and in the evening walked to see my friend, she's off on Safari next month, on her own with 4 kids, I've lent her my camera and walking boots for her and one of the boys. Had an early night after a long, hot and deep bath.

226 Tuesday Woke at 4am vomiting, I think it's food poisoning from last nights gammon, managed to get to the chemist, it settled around 2pm and I went to mums in the afternoon to meet the builders to sort out some remedial work they've been fobbing her off with since she moved in, in January. This is a result of all the dry weather we're getting, people are out more and leave their rubbish behind.

227 Wednesday The all important holiday manicure and pedi and new gel polish in the morning, coffee, visited child 2 and 2a, popped in to say bye to mum and return her car and had an early night.

228 Thursday Caught the National Express Coach from Monmouth at 10.25am, arrived at Manchester airport around 3pm where I'm staying for the night.

229 Friday An early morning flight to Greece, had 2 hours to kill till Peter's flight arrived from Dubai, collected car hire and drove to our self catering accommodation. It's not how it's described online but then we didn't pay for a 5* hotel. There's a whole blog post on the shower alone to come.

230 Saturday I didn't sleep well, but thankfully the area we are in was quiet well before midnight, but for some reason the cleaners were sweeping outside at 5am and by the time the bin lorry came at 5.30am and had a horn tooting row with someone else, I gave up. Peter fetched bread from the bakery and after breakfast we headed to the beach (another blog post on that to come) At midday we had lunch, a beer and the afternoon is being spent chilling out, before dinner tonight.

On the blog this week:
I've been thinking about retirement - What are your plans?
I'm back in South Africa next month - I've started fundraising
The train station back in Dubai is almost finished
I found a new blog linky to showcase my Creating a Garden in the Desert - #MyGloriousGardens with @oldhouseintheshire

Post Comment Love #PoCoLo 17-19 August

Welcome to Post Comment Love (#PoCoLo).  Same linky as usual for all all bloggers to link up their favourite post of the week.  Just in a different place.  Morgan is on her holidays at Walt Disney World so I'm co-hosting in August to help Stephanie.  

I'm co hosting this week whilst travelling to Greece. I'm meeting my husband Peter here for a week, he's flying over from Dubai to join me. I've bought myself a bikini, but once I get on the sun-bed I won't be moving off it, until the beach empties. I'm not at all convinced the top will stay on.

Next month I'm returning to South Africa, where we lived for 4 years, to stay with friends and to meet up with some of the children and charities I've continued to support over the years.

I joined in with the #PoCoLo linky a couple of years ago and it's been great to meet a variety of bloggers and connect with a wider audience.

Blogger Showcase. This week is the turn of Kirsten from Obtaining Bliss. Kirsten blogs about her personal journey with depression and her purpose is to help others who are struggling with it, or have anxiety to find their bliss. You can find out more about Kirsten by visiting Stephanie's post 

An InLinkz Link-up

What are your retirement plans?

Have you thought about your retirement? I don't mean the financial planning side or the thoughts one has about not having to go to work and having time for their hobbies. What I actually mean is what the hell are you going to do all day, every day in-between all the plans you have.

I retired in 2011 when we moved to South Africa, my visa prevented me from working. I worked full time as a volunteer. My youngest child left home for boarding school in the UK in 2013 and the last child left home in 2014. We moved to Dubai and I came out of retirement for a year to return to teaching.

Last year was spent travelling, then my father died. I sold my mums house and cleared out all my fathers belongings to allow her to downside and move. We moved house in Dubai.

This year has been spent travelling, UK,Germany, Greece next week, Dubai, South Africa in September, Dubai and back to the UK until the end of October. December my mum will visit.

2019 I will be off to Australia, child 2 and 2a will visit in February, March UK, April-June Dubai, June till September UK and back to Dubai. There's still another 2 and a bit years to fill.

Lots of lovely travel plans. But the bits in-between are boring, I'm doing nothing other than drinking coffee, reading, housework and seeing my mum and friends in the days and weeks when I'm not travelling. The UK and Dubai trips aren't holidays, they're day to day life. Food shopping, cooking, cleaning, ironing. Peter will travel with work when I'm in Dubai, so it'll be the same as when I'm in the UK, I'll be on my own. I'm 47 now, I've a long time ahead of me to fill.

We plan to buy a camper home when we return to the UK full time, but when the work stops, so does the income and although we've invested for our home, day to day life and an annual holiday, we won't have the income to continue with this level of travel.

A day on the beach at Barry Island, we visited here from Dubai.

We'll buy a house that needs some work doing on it and in the garden. We may have a dog to walk, we'll go out for coffee, to the pub, the housework will still need doing, we may even have grandkids by then. Peter will play golf, I'll go swimming. But what will we do in the gaps? The time in-between?

Whilst I spend my time visiting the family and friends, some local to the flat in South wales, some over seas, in between I do very little other than food shop, cook, clean, sort out paperwork, (insurances, tax returns and pay bills for our UK flat, UK house we rent and our Dubai home). I have to dedicate a several weeks a year to our daughters care home paperwork. I watch TV, I go for walks, I blog, I read, I get bored.

When Peter retires I won't be on my own most of the year, we'll still travel, we'll still do all the other stuff above, but what will we do on a day to day basis?

Supporting Children living in poverty in South Africa

I spent 4 years living in South Africa and have been back many times to visit the charities I worked 
with when we lived there.

There are numerous charities in South Africa supporting children living in poverty in many different ways.

The Viva Foundation who supply affordable education and support the local community with a 
variety of projects. Including camping in a township, taking part in an arts project.

Dignity Dreams providing women with washable and reusable sanitary products. I reviewed them.

Santa Shoebox Project collect and distribute 110,000 Christmas gifts throughout the country each 
year. My Santa Shoebox journey.

Kungwini Welfare Organisation provide residential care for adults and children with learning 
difficulties, as well as providing education in their local community. I first started making scarves 
with them in 2014 raising funds for supplies for the workshop

I'm back in South Africa in September 2018. I've funded my own trip and will be staying with friends as I've done previously, since we relocated to Dubai.

What I'll be doing as well as visiting and supporting Kungwini and Santa Shoebox is to visit the 
children in the townships that I've met through these organisations over the years and bring a little  
extra happiness into their lives.

This could be through painting a classroom, holding a birthday party, donating toiletries and or 
educational supplies and I'd like you to help me succeed by donating £5 in exchange for a handmade scarf. That's it, that's all you have to do, just visit my PayPal account and donate.

In exchange for your £5, I'll select a scarf at random that I've made and post it to you. I'll tweet out a 
thank you, post the total amount raised, provide invoices and post photos online (with permission) of 
the children who have received your donation. Every penny raised will be spent directly on children 
living in poverty.

Visit my Paypal account, donate and then message me with your address on:

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