Life List: A Holiday with the Girls

At the start of this year, I mentioned that I'd found myself accumulating a wee list of things I'd like to achieve or experience in my lifetime - a bucket list, I guess, though I'm reluctant to call it that. There are one or two serious ambitions, but it's mostly a collection of fairly fickle and fun things I just fancy giving a go. I'm going to share them here as I tick them off.

The first thing I ticked off was a night at the ballet.

The second was this: to take a holiday abroad with the girls.

(Photo pinched from my friend Alison's camera, taken by our driver.)

These days, most people seem to fit their first proper girly holiday around their 18th birthdays - somewhere between finishing 6th year of school and moving away to university. I don't remember that even being something we discussed.

I'm sure there were multiple reasons behind that - a distinct lack of money; a busy summer of voluntary work; the fact that I'd left school 7 months earlier and it was no longer something to celebrate; and our complete disinterest in "Shag-aluf" culture, just to start.

For whatever reason, we didn't take a holiday together that summer. Nor did we manage to coordinate our diaries in the first six years since then..

But this summer we did! Hammamet, Tunisia - May 2013.

Admittedly, of our ideal party there were two who couldn't come, but we managed to get four of us in the same place at the same time - the same foreign place, no less - and that is quite the achievement in itself!

A first time out of the UK for one of us, a first non-volunteering holiday for another, and the longest amount of time we'd spent in each others company for many, many years - you can imagine the number of apprehensions and anxieties we might have had about our little trip.

But we needn't have worried. Sure, we grated on each others nerves from time to time (as you do with anyone whose company you're in extensively), but that was far outweighed by the number of giggles we shared, the little adventures we enjoyed together and the memories that we brought home with us.

From the eight hour stint in the airport, to the sense of disorientation on arrival; the afternoons knitting by the pool, to the slightly-disturbing bellydance evening; the endless chatting-up from sleazy men, to the ninja-style dodging of aggressive salesmen; the nights pretending to be sophisticated ladies, to the reenactment of that 'New Girl' scene in the pool; the amazing ice-cream, crepes and plates of chips, to the multiple bottles of Tunisian wine, we shared it all and I, for one, had a brilliant time.  

I'm glad I got to share this little 'Life List' moment with these girls and I would gladly repeat the experience again (although, next time, I think I'd opt for less beach-and-pool and more things to see and do).