First Parent-less Holidays ('Life's a Journey' Link-Up, Week 20)

This post is part of a weekly series of ‘link-up’ Posts which reflect on life’s journey, old memories and family stories (see below for more info).

The beauty of my job is that I get to spend a lot of time daydreaming about old times. Is it me, or do you have to remind yourself how young you actually were when you did certain things which your own kids are now asking to do?!

My nieces are now at an age when they are holidaying with boyfriends, and before long it will be my own lads who are turning their broad teenage backs on me and tattooing the names of Ibizan lovelies on their backsides… *teeth making lip bleed*

When I was a fresh, self-conscious 14 year old I embarked upon a school trip to Greece. This was my first trip abroad that didn’t involve a ferry to Calais and a lot of rain.

My main memories of this week-long excursion are as follows:-

1. The inability to stomach any of the crap that the cheap ‘schoolgirl-appropriate’ hotels fed us. I seemed to be suffering from a virulent resurgence of that evolutionary survival reflex which appears in toddlers… you know when they suddenly refuse to eat anything but sausages for fear that new foodstuffs may poison them. My memory may be shaky, but I am sure that there was even olive oil on our ice-cream. Bluuurrrghh.

2. Miss Barnsley on a donkey. Say no more.

3. The fact that I was right to ‘drop’ History. Delphi, Marathon, Mount Olympzzzzz…snooze-fest.

4. The matching cheesecloth summer dresses that my bestie and I purchased. Lisa (left) was curvaceous and self-confident. I thought I was plump and ugly. When our American-Tan tight clad Latin teacher, a little over-excited by the heat perhaps, requested our cooperation for a photographic record of the moment, my heart plummeted. The evidence has been retained for your enjoyment 30 years on.

How I ever got a boyfriend, God alone knows.

I am dying to hear your own stories and memories about those early holidays which you took without your parents. Maybe you went abroad for the first time, or went away with a friend’s family? Perhaps, like me, it was a school trip somewhere.

Post an entry to your own Blog  and use the Linky tool (link below) to enter your memories into the fray. If you like, just leave a comment and join in that way, but do join in.

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Click here to enter your link and view this Linky Tools list…

If you feel sexy, grab the code too (just follow the link) and post it into your Blog entry – that way, everyone can pay it forward as they say – it’s good to share.

Please visit the other blogs on the list and leave a comment or two – it makes everyone’s day!

In next week’s Linky we will take a look back at the memory of  your childhood pets.  How old were you? Was it a trip with school friends and their families, or maybe a new boyfriend was on the scene? Did you venture abroad for the first time, perhaps? I am dying to hear your stories, so please come back and take part!!

No rules, just take the theme and write, then come back and join in with the Blog Hop on Tuesday…

More about the Life’s a Journey weekly memories series.

Other posts in this series:-

Week 1 - My earliest baby photo

Week 2 - Old School Portrait

Week 3 - Earliest Writings

Week 4 - Bestest Friends

Week 5 - Teenage Crushes

Week 6 - First Movie Memories

Week 7 - The Song You Snogged Your Hand To

Week 8 - Homage to Grandparents

Week 9 - Favourite Childhood Books

Week 10 - Tying the Knot (again)

Week 11 - Blue: Girl Guide Uniform Shambles

Week 12 - Cuddly Companions

Week 13 - A Rope, Some Pals and Jelly on a Plate

Week 14 - Pink NHS Specs, 1975

Week 15 - Regrettable hairstyles of the 1980s – The Mullet

Week 16 - The Lo-Tech Times of Childhood

Week 17 – Rollermania! 

Week 18 – Old Teen Magazines

Week 19 – Becoming a Parent

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