My Birthday Staycation

So I am on a very, very short vacation - something I do every year for my birthday - since the mere thought of waking up at 3am and slaving over a hot laptop on my special day is just ghastly. With my birthday being in December, my list of travel spots becomes very limited as I am averse to that white stuff called snow. It would take a real act of God to get me to travel to a temperate country for my birthday!

I am also not a great fan of island vacations and not even my Honolulu birthday trip could redeem itself from the island vacation curse. Wow. Honolulu - the stories! But, I do have a plan, with Tobago, despite it being an island, being selected as the destination of choice this year. It's home after all. So this is really more of a staycation than a vacation isn't it? I also have...

...a confession. It's shameful. I shudder just thinking of your reaction to this burden being lifted off my heart. But...

I had not been to Tobago in over 2 years!! Yep. The last time I was on the island was in May 2011 when I came home for vacation.  I know. Shameful. It's funny. I go all over the place, fighting up with surly Europeans for a visa, being interrogated by surly Americans as I try to enter the country, biting my tongue when the rude Pakistani immigration dude at London Gatwick asks me which man is paying for my trip (true story, and my tongue took a good, hard biting, cause I fraid jail and deportation). Yep - all this drama to get off the rock and Tobago was just sitting there - stress free, beautiful and welcoming.

Sadly, Tobago only became a birthday option after unforeseen and exceptionally critical December expenses put my Plan A out of the running. The truth is, I really get bored with the sun, sea and sand type vacations, and when single, these can be angst-ridden, especially if it is one of those spots that are sold to the lovebirds as the place to be. One day is fine. I will frolic in the sun and sea without complaint. Daysss stretching before me - agony. I am not good at lazy vacations, minus the frantic schedule of activities. But I did plan on a vacation of nothing, and  did say I needed to completely disconnect from my everyday life for a week or so, so let's see who survives this. It's just me, the sea and my flip flops.

I have a full schedule of 'nothing' events, including

• Morning workouts - been slacking on the fitness front so yes, I am packing my running shoes
• Leisurely breakfasts - no hurried breakfasts over company emails and before morning meetings
• French lessons by the pool - my MP3 player and my French books have been dusted off
• Reading - reading fun stuff, and not work stuff. My Kindle is fully charged
• Massage and facial love - get some pampering while I am at it
• Blogging - maybe...maybe
• Sunbathing - Dear God, please stop the rain for the rest of the week
• Wine drinking - kinda defeats the purpose of the morning workout but one needs wine when one celebrates getting older - to numb the pain
• Sleeping - have to fit this in into my busy "nothing" schedule
• Evening workout - yes, you read that right. lol
• Dinner with some more wine - screams in the face of that evening workout doesn't it?
• Chilling and counting my blessings - Amen

And so it begins. When all else fails, it is pretty easy to get an earlier flight back to Trinidad!