The Engagement Party

As with most couples our parents weren’t going to let this moment pass without a party and what a day we had. Friends, family, work colleagues (of both of us) were all in attendance for what (possibly inevitably) turned out to be an all day party.

Fortunately the weather held for us (not guaranteed in the UK at the end of August) and we were able to use not only the house but overflowed into the garden until the early hours.

Thankfully neither of us had to work on the Sunday as only a couple of hours sleep doesn’t do anyone any good on a “school night”! continue reading…

The Proposal

OK, so let me set the picture for you…

It’s a beautiful warm summer’s day in rural Staffordshire, Liz and I are on our first weekend off together for 6 weeks and we’re sat in the garden of a spa retreat with a couple of ice cold beers waiting for lunch to arrive, and then it happened, 2 simple sentences that would ensure that the next 12 months were going to be some of the most complicated of my life…
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The South Ari Atoll from the Seaplane window

Having heard my colleagues talking so passionately about the Maldives and not travelled there before, I was really looking forward to this trip! There was going to be so much to see and do, it wasn’t going to be a relaxing break but one which I knew both me and my clients would benefit from…

Sunday 15^th May

After a very easy train journey down to London, I met up with the rest of the agents at Heathrow Terminal 4 ready for our Sri Lankan Airlines flight to Male. The flight was relatively quiet so as soon as the plane took off we were able to move seats and I had a row of 4 in the middle of the plane to myself. Add the fantastic Sri Lankan food to this and it amounted to a very pleasant overnight flight!

Monday 16^th May

I arrived into Male at just gone midday after an uneventful but very comfortable flight. We were met in the arrivals hall by the rep and shown to the speedboat for our 90 minute transfer to Kuramathi.

What a place! After a look round the various Villas we walked up to the Sand Bar at the top end of the island for sunset.

Sunset on the Sandbank at Kuramathi Island Resort

Definitely a great way to spend the first evening in the Maldives! We walked back from the sandbank (via the jetty to watch the Stingray feeding) back down to the main part of the resort to enjoy a very relaxing meal in the Malaafaiy Restaurant. After dinner there was time to relax on the beach at one of the Islands 6 bars before well and truly breaking the peace and quiet on the Karaoke in the Havana Club.

Tuesday 17^th May

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28^th September – UK

I drove down to Gatwick from Stoke late so the journey was uneventful as I’d missed most of the traffic on the motorway. I arrived at the hotel around mid-night, checked in with the night porter who also showed me where to check my car in for the meet and greet parking. The room was small and very basic but clean and the bed was comfortable (not that I slept much as I was too worried about oversleeping so woke up every 40 minutes to check that I wasn’t late!?) continue reading…

Click here to book Sandals Regency St Lucia from £1689pp

The whole St Lucia experience started for us the day before we were due to fly out from Gatwick. We had been told that British Airways have a facility where you can check-in online 24hours before your flight is due to depart (actually 24 hours and not just the day before), so my first challenge even before we left Stoke for the airport was (once I’d got our passports and confirmation number) to check-in, pre-book our seats and print our boarding card so we could just drop our bags at the check-in desk at Gatwick the following morning. continue reading…