I will be honest, I have found lockdown and easing of lockdown hard.  I have found the work from home situation really difficult.  You can read my thoughts on work from home here.  It has been a full house with my son working from home, my daughter back from uni for longer than planned and my husband working sporadic hours.  So a few weeks ago I hatched a plan to have a couple of nights away by myself.  Its the kind of plan that often gets talked about and thought about but doesn't actually happen.  But with no girls weekend this year and no little trips to Bath to visit my daughter, I decided I needed it to happen.  So once we were allowed to book an overnight stay, I did, in Lymington in the New Forest.

My #beingfiftyandfab post this month is therefore going to be about my few days away, in diary format.  I am planning a social media break but I am going to take my Mac with me and write about each day as it happens.

I've written quite a few posts sharing my love of bikinis including tips and advice on how to rock a bikini even in your 50's - the secret is confidence!  But this year I will not be flying off to a sun lounger in the mediterranean, instead I will be enjoying my garden and making the most of the amazing weather we have been having (lets hope we get more).  So this year when Figleaves got in touch to ask if I would like to try something from their 2020 swimwear range - I decided I would update my swimsuit and I immediately fell in love with their new Frida range.

Well obviously you could sit for hours in the lovely sunshine we are having at the moment but a) that isn't practical and b) it's not good for your skin ... so instead I am getting started on my tan using St Moriz self tan products.  Do you fake tan?  Or are you still nervous of it going wrong?  I thought I'd share a few easy tips on getting the best fake tan because I am pretty happy with my results every year.

I used to steer well clear of self tan as I just wasn't brave enough but in more recent years the products just seem to get better and better and with so many options available it is possible to find just the right self tan for you.  But it can get expensive trying them out!  In all the years I have been using self tan I have only ever used St Moriz, yes I have tried others, but I have still ended up going back to St Moriz.

This year St Moriz gifted* me a few of their products which seeing as I use them anyway was an extra bonus and it has given me the opportunity to try the different self tan products they offer.

In July 2018, I travelled to Sri Lanka with my husband and daughter to visit family who live there and run an animal charity in Negombo.  It was a big deal for me, a long flight and a holiday in a 'developing' country that I wasn't at all sure I would cope with.  And our daughter was going to do some voluntary work to help with writing her personal statement for her application to Norland College. 

We had an amazing holiday, I coped, in fact I more than coped and I'd love to go back one day.  It makes me feel quite sad though at how travel and tourism in Sri Lanka (and around the world) has changed since that trip in 2018.  Sri Lanka suffered hugely from the Easter Sunday bombings in 2019 and tourism that year hardly recovered only to be hit in 2020 by the worldwide coronavirus pandemic.  It seems unreal and I often think of the wonderful Sri Lankan people we met during that holiday.  So friendly, so welcoming but so in need of the income from the visiting tourists.