for the first time..

.. in eight years I have been on holiday.

I travel loads as a bonafide "traveller" complete with backpack, occasional Lonely Planet and a deep interest in culture and a dedication to getting off the beaten tourist track (which I only really ever managed in Western Australia, Fiji and Vietnam).

But a week long holiday? Me? Nope. Not since 2002. Not since "wayzback".

The landscapes were stunning - white and terracotta washed buildings, out into the sand dunes, towards the lagoon ocean with variations of blue running through it making it all rather picture perfect. Apart from the buildings that are half built, slightly wonky looking and have been that way for the last two or so years. The global economy ground to halt and along with it so did the tourist buildings designed to accommodate ever more tourists who no longer have the disposable cash to be tourists. So a landscape beautiful, yet sometimes blighted.

The culture was overrun by ex-pats with a certain accent that sends me running to the hills screaming loudly and rocking gently, but to be fair, there was always a smile and a greeting which is more than can be said for what you get in London.

The locals on the most part were delightful but I never got to practise the local language since they all cut you short and speak in a hackneyed, cockneyed, accented English. It was far better than my hideously basic attempts but ultimately meant that I learnt bugger all of their language, despite being determined to be different to all the others who had been in the country for years and can barely speak a word. So I tried. But ultimately I failed. Every time I tried to think of the word I was looking for I would invariably get the Xhosa version of what I wanted in my head. So painfully, out spurted the English version translated in my head from English to Spanish, to Xhosa and back to English again. I had a headache. An African language on a European island generally doesn't translate easily. Funny that.

Yet despite all that I had the most delightful time. I needed it. Wanted it. Had it. Loved it. Hurrah.