Guatemala

We had a great Friday night out in Guatemala City with our suppliers. Good food, many fabulous cocktails, salsa and bachata music. It couldn’t have been much better. We stayed at the Intercontinental Hotel in Guatemala and wow, were their beds the most comfortable I have ever stayed in!!! Great gym and pool too. Saturday morning, rooftop pool, a few lengths in the sunshine – a great way to get rid of a hangover!

Then we headed up to Antigua, the original capital of Guatemala back in Mayan days and now a very touristy, hippy kinda place but it was closest to our farms. We got picked up by our chauffeur in a bullet proof massive Hummer – it was amazing! We loved it – slightly concerning that it was required to be bullet proof but we felt safe and the entire family we went to see had security guards. It was the first time I have walked round a blackberry field with a security guard 10 paces behind me at all times!
We managed to stay in two amazing boutique hotels in Antigua which were great. We could get used to that kind of lifestyle! Great showers, ipod speakers, 40” TV’s, comfy beds. It was lovely and we were treated well.

Streets of Antigua, Guatemala

Myself and Dr T also managed to sample as many Marguerita’s as we could in our 9 day trip, plus some Tequila Sunrise’s, Vodka Collins, hmm what else???? Oh yes the most amazing chocolate fondant dessert ever – I wish I had got a photo of that. It was so good that we had it two nights in a row!

Now this all sounds very much hard work huh? It was really – we had 3 hours journeys there and back most days to farms, a lot of walking around in mud, a lot of discussions on varieties, packaging etc that are a requirement of these trips but we did managed to party hard when it was required. We had a great tour guide to take us around Guatemalan villages on the Day of the Dead and that was a real eye opener.
Sadly the amount of sunshine was not great on our whole trip but we did get a chance to sunbathe just for one morning. Oh well – we were there to work after all!!

Antigua, Guatemala

My passport has now been put to rest until a fabulous holiday in December with a certain special someone.
I need to spend some time in the UK for a while!

Weekend of Fun…

Friday night – a lovely evening in the big city with the lovely man in my life. We had a gorgeous light bite for dinner at my favourite restaurant chain Med Kitchen; then hot-footed it to Leicester Square’s Vue cinema to walk down the red carpet for the 53rd London Film Festival preview of Dogtooth. I would recommend this film to anyone searching for a good film, that’s not a Hollywood blockbuster, has some depth and meaning to it and the occasional laugh. However the overlying story to the depth is quite chilling and there are some pretty gruesome bits to it. An interesting watch though!

Then to complete relaxation at the lovely London Bridge Hotel – the staff are very courteous, reliable and polite. For a central London hotel the room was far from pokey and the bed was most comfortable – thank you to them.

Then a mad dash on Saturday morning to Kings Cross Station to get the 10:53 to York.

A city I have never been to before and quite frankly I don’t really know why! It is a lovely place. I met my best friend from Uni there and we strolled into the city centre; a little bit bemused and unsure, as neither of us had been there before but it makes it all the more fun. We found my favourite coffee chain and sat down to a lovely Starbucks coffee and a seriously good catch up. After we had non-stopped talked for an hour we decided to see what York had to offer us in the fashion retail department and we were not disappointed. Cath got her fabulous red duffel coat that she had her eye on in Topshop for quite some time – it is simply delightful. We wandered the streets and rapidly created outfits on our way. I am today sporting a lovely French look stripy teeshirt dress, that is simply fabulous teamed with my cropped tuxedo jacket and skinny jeans.

Flash forward to Cairo

I arrived in Cairo to hot, humid, smoggy 35 degree heat. For some reason I wasn’t expecting it?!  I was Staying at my new found fabulous hotel; Concorde El Salam – much cheaper but nicer than the city centre big chain hotels. There is a cinema in the garden – fab!

Hotel in Cairo

It has been a long hard slog of a day at three strawberry fields, one packhouse, a lot of miles on the roads, some great off road driving by our Ricky Martin lookalike driver followed by a cruise down the Nile with Belly Dancing and entertaining suppliers.