The Gallery: Tomorrow...

"Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today"

In the spring of 2009 I left my 28 year job as a civil servant.

In celebration of shaking off the shackles of a job that by that point had become boring and mundane, and the end of a daily 4-5 hour commute into London I decided we needed a holiday. Not our usual car drive, ferry, chalet or caravan type family trip, but somewhere we'd never been before. 

The kids suggested the States, that didn't really appeal to me.

Ian then suggested Greece. Specifically a Greek Island, Poros, which he'd been to twice, years before, and was one of his favourite places and would love to go back to. But he explained though stunningly beautiful, it was a quiet, relaxed and chilled Island, not a clubbing, touristy type one.

Ah, right, so maybe not the best place to go with 8 (yes, eight, the kids took a friend each) Teens and young adults. I thought they might need more excitement, a place with a bit more of a buzz. Two weeks on an island with only one nightclub could get very boring, very quickly.

I even suggested it sounded like the perfect place for us to go when he retired, just the two of us, without the children. Maybe we should save it as a retirement holiday for him?

You would not believe how happy I am that the children and I decided we'd 'trust' Ians choice (after MUCH googling of course!).

They were happy to be chilled for two weeks and bask in some sunshine and Greek beauty.

We stayed in a beautiful villa overlooking the quay.

Late mornings with breakfast on the terrace. Slow walks & bus rides to beaches for lunch.

Long, long lazy evening meals that started at 8pm and continued till 12pm. Lots of walking, reading, eating and drinking. And yes, the kids did go the the one and only club, all of two times. But they seemed perfectly happy to while away the majority of their evenings spending time with us, wandering round the sea front, stopping for a drink or playing cards on the terrace (the villa had no TV), laughing, talking and watching the coming and goings of the quay, while going through sensible copious amounts of local beer and local brandy.

It was a very special time, for all of us.

I'm so pleased Ian convinced me we should go there as a family and not wait for his retirement, so, so relieved...

...because we really never know what tomorrow will bring, do we?

Slideshow design customized with Smilebox This weeks Gallery prompt from Sticky Fingers is 'Tomorrow'. Pop over and check out all the other entries.

Sticky Fingers The Gallery....Beauty

BEAUTY...

Tara at Sticky Fingers has a photo gallery link and the theme today is 'Beauty'

So here's mine.

I took this photo last July on the island of Poros, Greece. 

They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder and this is one of my ideas of 'beauty'.

It's the branch of a tree, which reaches out over the sea, in an idealic place called 'Love Bay'.  
A beautiful name for a beautiful place...
I know that for all of us it was one of those holidays you hold close to your heart and carry forever...

Five memorable moments & Stories & songs Meme..

Love Bay - Poros

Slap my wrists, I have been very remiss and I'm now trying to catch up on two tags.

The delightful Dulwich Divorce tagged me with 'Five memorable moments' of 2009, and the ever busy Babyrambles (I applaud you, how on earth are you finding time to blog? Go and have a lay down lovely lady, you're making me tired!) has tagged me with a Stories and Songs Meme, started by Brits in Bosnia

2009, an interesting year. The first has to be from May, when I took Early Severance from my Civil Service career of 28 years. I was only 19 yrs old when I started (a baby) This was a huge decision for me, us civil servants are (were) creatures of habit & like the comfort of a healthy, steady wage. Yes it was a choice, I wasn't pushed. But the job had changed so much over the years, and I truly wasn't enjoying it anymore, so I saw it as a chance to try something completely different. I still haven't found out quite what that is yet, but luckily the redundancy package has given me time to explore.

As a celebration of leaving one phase of my life and starting a new one, I booked the holiday of a lifetime. A beautiful villa called Lemon Tree House, for 10, on the stunningly beautiful Greek island of Poros. Just a little background here. We are not a huge travelling round the world type family. More the sort of stay at home, camping, caravan type. A few week long trips to France over the years, and should I say this out loud? 2 of my children had never even been on a plane! Shock, horror!
So, for us, this holiday was a huge deal. The 6 of us, and a friend each for the kids. My OH had visited Greece before, including Poros, but it was a first for the rest of us.
It was the most perfectly glorious and relaxed 2 weeks....memories which myself, OH and the children will hold dear forever.

My lovely, lovely OH, very chilled! - Poros

My beautiful family & their friends - Poros

In August, my Beautiful Teenage Daughter, my baby, turned 16, and left school. My last one! So I spent a memorable 10mins, in my car, alone, on her GCSE results day, reminiscing and getting misty eyed, on what had gone before, and what was still to come. Bittersweet.

Surprise memory. I discovered I could make a little money from my Art, who knew?!

And thanks to the lovely Emily at Maternal Tales, for an 'Oooh' moment memory, when my eyes were opened to the world of Blogging.

Moving on to the 'Stories and Songs Meme'

I'll try and make it a quickie, before you start falling asleep....

Early 1977 was the year we moved house, yet again. I was 15 yrs old, and within days had found out that in the house behind us, lived a gorgeous, blond, 15 yr old boy. I then developed the biggest, hugest ever crush, my first real crush that wasn't a teeny pop band of some sort, in the way only a romantic 15 yr old girl can. You know the one, the "I can't possibly live without him!"... "Nobody will ever love him the way I do!" kind of way.
We had albums & cassettes back in the day, and the two I played incessantly (oh my poor mother) were Rod stewarts 'Smiler' and Blondies 'Plastic Letters'. I would play them and gaze, longingly out of my bedroom window, dreaming.
By Spring, I had plucked up the courage to talk with him :::swoon::sigh::.
Come the summer we were best friends.
By my 16th Birthday party, at the end of the following February, we were 'together'... yes, put your fingers in your ears and sing loudly "tralalalalala" *cough*....he was my first.....*blush*

During that February of 1978, the single released by Blondie, which reached No 2 in the charts was 'Denis Denis'...




..........................


........The name of my First Love?...


...........................


......Dennis.....

I kid you not...I couldn't make it up if I tried. Although, admittedly, it does sound a little better in French!

I'm passing these tags along to the following lovely bloggers....

Chic Mama

Emily at Maternal Tales

Gigis Ramblings

Ju at Maiaandlarasblog

auntiegwensdiary