ABOUT ME

How to unwind on holiday…?

Now this is a good question! Any tips would be greatly appreciated because I’ve just been on holiday and this has been my attempt at de-stressing…

Day 1:

I love going for an early morning run, I know this might sound a bit crazy, especially when you’re on holiday, a lie in would probably be the most popular option, and in hindsight, probably the wisest. But I find waking up early and stepping outside with the early morning breeze caressing my face almost therapeutic. It’s just me and the open country lanes. As I run, the early sun’s rays gently kiss my skin, I feel free and my legs are light on the tracks. I leave my phone and everything else that ties me to social media and modern technology behind. It’s just me and mother nature. No music blaring into my eardrums, just the rustle of the leaves as the soft breeze gently shakes them awake. I breathe in deeply, my blood now pulsing through my veins and I feel peace.

It lasts for about ten minutes as I’m suddenly aware that there is a wild horse galloping towards me, kicking up a cloud of dust and I wonder if I can reach the nearest tree first and if I’d still have enough energy in me to climb it. But of course I remind myself, trying to keep calm, that it’s bulls that charge, not horses. Or is it?

As the horse nears, I’m revealed to notice that I actually know the horse and that it belongs to a friend of mine. It had obviously escaped from it’s coral somehow and was probably more nervous than I was, and I was, at that point, on the verge of hyperventilating and passing out from the shock of the sudden ambush.

I reach out my hand to calm the horse, who nervously snorts through it’s nostrils, calming as it takes in my familiar scent. I reach for my phone, which of course I don’t have with me and realise that I’m going to have to make my way home as fast as possible to phone my friend to tell him his horse has escaped and is a dangerous 1 mile away from the main highway. Horsey thinks this is a great idea and decides to follow me, so I try to shoo it away whilst at the same time try to keep it calm. Making for a very confusing situation and this is just from my point of view.

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I was given my first mobile phone 20 years ago, it was this huge, ugly, blue plastic brick looking phone. But as a brick, it was impossible to break and you only needed to charge the battery about once a week! (Those were the days!)

What I also vividly remember was my absolute abhorrence to it. I would never answer it in public. The ring tone turned down to a new low, so as not to attract the beady stares of those around. I didn’t want a mobile phone, had no need for one and didn’t want to be seen dead with one! Looking back, I find this hilariously funny. Little me who would pretend that the bleep bleep of an incoming text wasn’t mine, now can’t go five minutes without checking, at least twice, my super, latest model on the market, Huawei!

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My debut novel, A little of Chantelle Rose, which was released just recently, was actually written thirteen years ago. After graduating from Loughborough University with a degree in PE and Sports Science, I travelled and worked in various jobs. One of which was as an extra in a British produced gangster film which was filmed in Nerja, Spain. It goes without saying that my sport mechanics and kinetic energy knowledge wasn’t put to maximum potential in this part-time job. But it was certainly a fun and unique experience, but most importantly it gave me an idea.

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Up to the age of about ten, I was always asked “So, is you right half the English half or the Spanish half?” I’ve never found this question very funny, but I guess my legs are my definitely part of my English heritage, going on the simple fact that they are always the palest part of my body. And “Do you dream in English or in Spanish?” I’m actually usually too exhausted to dream and remember, so I can’t answer that one. But I can confirm that when I swear, it’s definitely in English. FFS comes out much more naturally in my mother tongue. What I can’t do is sit through a English documentary which as been dubbed into Spanish. My brain tries to pick out the English words that have been semi silenced over the Spanish translation and I have to really concentrate if I’m to make head or tail of what’s being said as my brain goes into overdrive filtering the two languages at once and I risk blowing a fuse in my own head.

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