Escape from reality and some amazing deals!

Well, it’s been a little while since we last spoke. How have you been? I have been busy, is probably the best way to describe it. Life just seems to move faster and faster at the moment and there seems to be more and more things to do. I have no idea how I’d manage everything if I had a family and children to care for too!

For those of you in my age bracket (51), is this something that happens in midlife? Or is it just me?
Some headlines (these are definitely not a list of moans or complaints, just some context to my busy-ness):

• My apartment is still a disaster and nothing has happened at all in the almost 10 weeks since the storm! When I say nothing, I literally mean nothing! Apparently this isn’t atypical when it comes to insurance companies and major losses – knowing this does not make it any more bearable though!
• I am still living in hotels at the moment, carrying my life around with me in bags and suitcases, which isn’t much fun but I try to pretend I am some hotshot international business man flitting hither and thither with clients to meet and a portfolio to organise! Lol. It doesn’t really work though when I am faced with the reality that I need to find a laundrette to rinse out my smalls, and dinner is, yet again, a salad bowl from the local supermarket eaten whilst sat on a bed in a room that is smaller than the Geneva convention would deem big enough for humane habitation. I mean I am joking, in part, but you get the idea!
• Renovation works, I am told, will take a minimum of 6 months (when they finally begin). So I have reasonably concluded that I won’t get back to my home until Christmas at the earliest. With this in mind I have been searching for a place to rent in the meantime (anything has got to be better than the hotel situation). So hours have been spent trawling through property websites and estate agents. But it’s probably all been a total waste of time as anything available will probably be gone by the time the insurance decides to act. I do just laugh to myself at this point about the futility of it all. I’m sure many of you have been on this insurance company merry-go-round at some point too.
• Popping back and forth to Ireland to see and care for mum has been hard to manage but I’ve been trying to get there every four weeks. In fact, I am heading there tomorrow for 6 days. I refuse to ever complain about being able to see mum, that is always a joy and a blessing.

There’s actually lots more going on but you get the idea I hope. I was actually quite lucky the last time I got home to mum in March and I took a couple of days to meet up with a friend of mine. She is also originally from Northern Ireland but now lives and works in Scotland. We have been retrying to see each other since before the pandemic and we used my last trip home as an excuse to finally do it. She flew home to visit her dad, who still lives there, and I visited with mum. Then we had a couple of glorious days just hanging out.

We booked into a really funky boutique hotel in Belfast (well, my friend booked it) and then took day trips out to the seaside, a National Trust home and some other sites along the way, including all the places she lived growing up in Northern Ireland, which was so lovely to see. We ate some great food and I have to say, having left Belfast about 25 years ago, they now have some cracking restaurants!

My hotel room, by the way, was amazing. It was actually a suite with the most enormous four poster bed, a roll top bath in the room itself (there was also a completely separate en-suite) and a record player with the most fantastic selection of vinyl from jazz (my favourite) to country to the original soundtrack of Cabaret! I am not one for having baths myself usually but, hello, it was right there in my room so on went the jazz records and in I got! Heaven.

If you are ever over Northern Ireland way and are near the Ards Peninsula, can I recommend the National Trust house and gardens of Mount Stewart? The gardens are in the top 10 gardens in the world and they were just starting to come into bloom when we were there but were already making quite an impact! There is so much to see and we had the most spectacular weather too! We even did some ‘forest bathing’ whilst we were there. It was blissful and gave some much needed relief from life.

That was weeks ago now and seems like a long distant memory. We have had Easter since then. How was yours? I was working at the Q for much of it but it’s always fun at work around festive times. The Easter bunny was leaving chocolate for us all every day (so much so that I still have some, anyone else?). He is a very generous bunny, I have to say.

I have been busy at work too and there are lots coming up, including some great Today’s Special Values! Here’s a quick rundown of a few of them:

If you are in the market for a new smartphone, we have one for you from Motorola. It’s the Motorola Edge 20 6.7″ 5G 128Gb Sim Free Smartphone and it is on 3 Easy Pay interest-free instalments too!

We recently had a Today’s Special Value from Emma (the UK’s most awarded sleep brand) who brought us a great mattress option. If you missed out on that and you are looking to improve your bed and your quality of sleep, we have an superb option coming up from Silentnight in the form of the Silentnight Miracoil Mattress, so stay tuned for that!

Last but by no means least, there is a four-piece L’Occitane Complete Shea Body Collection (available on 3 Easy Pay interest-free instalments). It’s super and I know you are going to love it!

I am sure it must be time for me to start packing some bags and moving to another hotel room, it’s been at least 5 minutes! Lol. So I’ll get off and do that. In the meantime stay safe, mind yourself and catch up with you again soon.

Until next time,

Miceal X