Showing posts with label friendship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label friendship. Show all posts

Tuesday, 27 August 2013

My wonderful trip to Mexico! Part two.

We had one week left, after doing many amazing things like a beer guzzling boat trip, snorkeling with turtles and going to the greatest club there ever was, it was time to get a little cultured. A few of us decided to visit Playa Del Carmen again, which is the local town. It reminded me of Brighton, it has a sloping hill that led to the beach, sadly no arcades though only glorious heat! We walked around looking at the tourist shops, we took a stroll onto the beach to see these huge sand sculptures sat in the middle. Near the entrance of the beach were these cast iron archways made to look like two mermaids guarding the sea, was incredible! I noticed a lot of artistic sculptures and installations around Mexico. Just down the road from the beach there was a huge oak tree that had loads of different colored umbrellas perched in the wood. We soon got hungry and found a place to eat, after that we stumbled across a Haagen-Dazs ice cream shop, was an absolute god-send in that heat! It was a lovely day walking around and seeing the locals doing their shopping and relaxing by the beach.
The day of mine and Joe's Mayan ruin & Cenote trip came around, we were both so excited to get our little adventure going, we got picked up from our hotel at 9am and it took 2 hours to get to the Cenote. Now for anyone who doesn't know what a Cenote is, its a large naturally formed cave far underground that tends to have freshwater in the bottom that is deep enough to swim in. Truly beautiful looking. Once we arrived, we were greeted by Mayan people. They led us through a thick jungle and stood us all in a small clearing, we were then blessed by the head shaman. After that we had to go shower in our swimwear as to get rid of any cosmetics on our skin before swimming in the freshwater. We started hiking up the mountain to get to the entrance of the Cenote, there was two ways down. The stairs or to repel backwards on a rope about 50 feet down. We obviously chose to repel down.  I was petrified but when we hit the water it was one of the best and exhilarating experiences. We had a personal photographer that shot us when we were coming down the rope and when we were zip lining in the water. Joe loves to dive and he's pretty good at it, so the photographer loved shooting him diving off every edge he could find. It was such a mind blowing day just swimming round in freezing cold water with catfish swimming round too. Once everyone was finished in the Cenote it was time to go enjoy some Mayan food. We scoffed pretty much everything at the buffet then headed back to the van to go see the ruins. Once we got to the ruins the heavens opened so we sheltered in the little forest bit near by. It was just ridiculous how high the ruins were, we climbed to the top and the view was something out of a book. I'm a bit of a nerd when it comes to architecture and art, so this was the best of both words. Loads of stone carvings and stories behind each one. We got an hour to walk around then it was back on the bus home.

The hotel that we went to was voted one of the best Spa hotel's in Latin America so obviously we had to go see it for ourselves. We booked in for a hydro therapy session and it really didn't cost much. We got there and one of the workers showed us around, telling us the order of the pools we had to go in. Each pool was different, they had jet streams that massaged each body part and different temperatures. We went through the different stages and when we got to the hot tub part there was also a ice cold pool next to the tubs. We were meant to go in the ice pool for 5 seconds then get out and jump in the hot tub, well i just dipped my feet in and decided i weren't even gonna try 5 seconds. Joe however sat in there for 9 minutes. I think he was trying to break some manly record with himself. After getting out of the pool area we were led to saunas. Going into a sauna in a hot country wasn't really for me but they were all fragranced differently and had different humidity's. We walked over warm stones to soothe our feet and laid on these curved stone hot beds that rocked. We also got given drinks and soft robes. I think i have slightly fallen in love with spa treatments. So relaxing and worth the money.

For the rest of the week we relaxed at the beach, played with raccoon's that stole our food and sunbathed til the sun went down. Me and Joe went to dinner at the Japanese restaurant and we were all seated in a square with a chef in the middle cooking on a huge hot plate, he chopped and diced, then threw his knives around for our entertainment. Every time our plates were empty they would fill them back up. The Japanese was definitely the best restaurant there. I was so sad to see the holiday come to an end, we drank, we laughed, we sunbathed - a lot. It was just amazing to wake up every morning and see the ocean. I definitely want to move by the coast, even if it is English sea.

There's probably a lot more i can say about this holiday but i think I've rambled enough. I'd love to hear about your holiday's and summer trips. Link me in the comment box below :)

Thanks for reading!

Love Madison
  
  

Ps, Viva La Mexico!

Saturday, 10 August 2013

Hanging out with a dear old friend.

For months i have been waiting for the  arrival of a very dear friend of mine, he is my absolute best boy mate and he came to visit England from Canada, Toronto. Not to just see me though, he has family and friends here because he grew up in my hometown. I've known Adam since i was 12 and we've been close ever since. His mom and stepdad decided to move to Toronto when he was 18, which was heartbreaking for me but pretty exciting for him as he attended an amazing art university over there. I genuinely thought id never see him again but true to his word he visits pretty much once a year. His gorgeous twin sister Nat stayed in England and went to Leeds uni so that's pretty much the obvious reasons for his visits but he always makes time for me when he's here.

He only had a two week visit this year so he came to Leicester for the day. We hung out all day, went town so he could pick up some of the boyish British stuff he can only get here and then we had Ed's Diner milkshake. Now if you've never been to an Ed's and had milkshake you are seriously missing out. Its the cutest American diner, complete with red leather booths and juke boxes. The milkshakes are made with ice cream and are favoured with syrup. I had coffee flavour as usual, Adz had banana. We sat and chatted for ages then headed to the pub. After grabbing some drinks and playing some pool, which i lost appallingly we headed home to go meet Joe. I was nervous about Adam meeting my boyfriend for the first time because he's such a brotherly figure, i kinda freaked and thought what if he hated him? Instantly they became friends and sat there talking about trainers and cars. YAWN. When Steph and her boyfriend Luke got home we headed out to Ask Italian and stuffed our faces, drank wine and laughed till it was dark. 

The night wasn't over though, we met up with some other friends spontaneously after dinner and decided to go to this little field by my house that had a brook and a tire swing. We grabbed some drinks and firewood on the way. After a few attempts at making a campfire we finally got it started and it was amazing, sat round playing music and drinking. The perfect way to spend time with everyone. When it eventually got to 1am we called it a night because Adam was going London early the next day.




Saying goodbye to him is always hard because it just doesn't feel like he ever left, there's never awkward silences to fill, we just chat and laugh like we've always done. We always message each other and whenever I'm in a rut about something, Adz is always the first person to help. I see him as a brother and he ain't never leaving my life! Me and Joe are gonna try visit him in Toronto next year, it'd be an amazing trip and he'd know all the best places to go! I've always thought if you try hard at long distance friendships they do work out, i really can't imagine ever falling out with someone because they live too far away.
Hope everyone had a wonderful sun filled adventure Monday like i did! :)
Thanks for reading
Love Madison

(I was actually meant to post this just before holiday and totally forgot! The next post i do will be complete Mexican madness so keep an eye out!)

Friday, 8 March 2013

Wait Mr Postman, is that for me?

After the most horrendous day of work with a very sniffley cold indeed, i walked home with a heavy heart, all that was waiting at home for me was a tin of Heinz and bad television. My boyfriend has a week of early starts so he's staying at his. My house-mate is working nights at her bar so I wont be seeing her till next week sometime. With this all in mind i put the key in the front door and went inside. Right in front of me was a HUGE package addressed to me. As i unwrapped it, i became overwhelmed. My STUNNING friend Paige Joanna Calvert had sent me the jumper i bought from her Ebay. Not only was the jumper amazing but she had also thrown in a delicate pastel blue shirt with an embroidered collar. As if that wasn't enough, i also discovered a lovely turquoise stone skull bracelet. 

 ♥
I delved deeper into the parcel bag and there was a card.
 It read 'Madison' with 'SWALK' written underneath.
(For those who don't know what this means, it is 'Sealed with a loving kiss'.)

After reading her lovely little card, I noticed there was another card in the envelope, it was a print of one of her brilliant illustrations. 
One of my favourites!
 ♥






It's amazing what little gestures can do to change so much about my miserable mood and my generally down-beat-ness of this week. It's a beautiful and incredibly generous thing to do for someone. I was a little overwhelmed by it all to be honest. 
  Made me all warm inside.


To see other beautiful illustrations by my friend Paige, you can visit her on:
www.facebook.com/PaigeJoannaIllustration

She also has a online store where you can buy these lovely prints & things from...

www.etsy.com/shop/paigecalvert1

And finally...

Thank you so much Paige for the wonderful bundle. It was amazing. Please keep a look out for the post-man, I'm sure there will be something on its way to you soon...
You wonderful little person, you.