I’m coming to you today from a glamping pod in famous racing stables in Findon, West Sussex. The glamping units are very nice indeed with great decor, awesome hot showers in designer bathrooms and a green, tranquil setting. Findon Village is beautiful, with several gastro pubs but the real draw is the horses and true to form, the horses are stunning.
A mixture of riding and racing horses, they clip-clop up the lane right next to my abode, to the Downs where they exercise. Then they clip-clop down the lane again, to relax in their stables, every need taken care of, for the rest of the day.
I ran into one, jockey astride, yesterday afternoon as I went to my car. The jockey graciously dismounted, and asked if I liked being there, did I find the horses noisy and did I want to stroke her. Did I? Up close, racehorses are very, very big. He held her while I tentatively stroked her, saying out loud exactly what I was thinking which is “Are they not the most magnificent creatures?”.
When you drive – very, very slowly – through the yard, all of these magnificent creatures look at you out of the top half of their stable door, some whinnying gently, some snorting, but all thinking deep horsey somethings. You can feel their souls as you go past. I like being here a lot.
Well, I would be coming to you from there right now, if there was internet in my current glamping pod. There was internet in my last (bigger) pod, there will be internet in my next (bigger) pod but apparently not in THIS interim pod. No TV either, but luckily there is enough of a mobile signal to catch up with Masterchef Celebrity and my favourite Vietnamese & Philippine Forest Farmers last night, or I’d be tearing my hair out.
But it’s typical that the very day, after three months, that I finally feel inspired to write something, today would be the non-internet interim pod weekend. Bank Holiday weekend in the UK, you see. Not a hotel room to be had for less than £250 a night unless you want to go to Brighton (and I didn’t).
So I’ve de-glamped to my mate Andy’s dining room to use his internet, him being just up the road from said Stables. Not that his house is not glam, it very much is. But glam with internet.
I didn’t expect to be back in the UK until next year actually, so you can’t be any more surprised than I am to hear I’m in Sussex again.
Apologies, y’all. I’ve been seriously putting this writing business off… well, for about three months now. If it were not for the weight of emails – at least 12 of them – asking me whereabouts I am in the world now, this probably wouldn’t even be getting written now.
I fully expected to write at least one post a week from Greece, Mexico and El Salvador, my three intended destinations. So what happened?
When I got to Greece, I spent a month with no internet as I’d forgotten to ask my hostess if there was any. To be fair, she thought there was but as she only stays there occasionally, she didn’t realize she was actually on her mobile data. I had no internet and my O2 roaming data didn’t cut it at all. No signal to speak of, in the particular part of the village I was in.
Then it got so hot the only place I wanted to be for any length of time was on the beach. Literally, every day, all day. I love being on the beach there but while you can do a lot on your mobile, under the sun umbrella, writing a blog post is not one of them. I’m old school, I need to touch type. Straight from my brain, to your page, via my fingers.
Then I went to The Financial Summit, hosted by Tone Vays in the Dominican Republic and not only was it really hot there too (and humid too, cheesus, was it humid!) but we were very busy. Barely time to sleep between the learning & networking sessions, the great dinners and the poker & dancing in the suite Tone had reserved for us all to hang out in.
The resort was AMAZING! We stayed at the Castle At The Sanctuary and my suite was as big as an average UK flat.
This was the most fun – riding the golf cart up the hill from the rest of the resort to the Castle.
And here’s a couple of pics of my room / bathroom (there was a dance-around shower and separate loo).
And this was the top-lit, open-air internal waterfall that I had to pass on my way to my room.
It was all lit up at night too. Stunning.
If you are in finance, Bitcoin or trading, you really must try and get to one of Tone’s Summits. The next one is in Bali and you can find out more here.
But…
This is where the tale takes a turn for the worse.
While there, I made a change to my plans, a change that was to teach me two HUGE life lessons. One internal – about myself – and one external about what you MUST do when planning a trip.
But in the best Andre Chaperon “cliffhanger” style, I’m going to save that story for tomorrow.
Check out Part 2 – El Salvador
Check out Part 3 – Mexico via Panama City
Talk soon!
Nicola
Leave a Reply