Benicassim

 All photos taken by me.

So due to the majority of my funds currently being deposited directly into the travel fund, deciding on this years holiday required an element of alternative planning - the perfect outcome of which turned out to be five days at Benicassim festival for me and the boy. I love a good festival, and the additional draws of Spain, sunshine and a location nestling between the sea and the mountains sealed the deal. However, certain inevitable challenges are generally involved with summer festivals on a budget, especially for me - namely, camping. Now I am not exactly high maintenance (kicking cockroaches out of your makeup bag after the drains flood in your Vietnamese apartment will knock that right out of you) but a two-man tent in 40 degree heat for a festival that goes on 'til 8am every morning guarantees neither sleep nor presentable appearance. That said, we did quite well - until the fourth morning when we bailed and checked into a hotel for the last two nights! Well we tried, but 72 hours is a long time to go without sleep.

A few photos of our trip: Sunsets over the mountains and sunrises over the palms, beach hair, my (very) vintaged cutoffs, breakfast, the festival food market, aztec nails, neon dip-dye, music, festival camping wardrobe, between the mountains and the sky.

Indigo haze

Images from Tumblr, Piccsy, Flickr and Pinterest.

There's always a beginning...

So 2012 so far... I've quit my job as a Personal Shopper, moved back home and completed an EFL teaching course online to fully qualify myself as a teacher of English as a foreign language. This may seem random... I've done the teaching thing before, in Vietnam as a gap placement in between college and uni, and thought that it would be a one off experience to get out of my system before concentrating on real life - it ended up being the most real thing I've ever done, and despite concerted efforts to find something to do with myself within the bounderies of 'normal' life progression - job + car + house +  marriage + retirement - there is nothing I love as much as the feeling of emerging from an airport into hot dusty chaos and plunging into an alien culture. So despite my current (and I'm sure very familiar to many 20 somethings) state of alternating between cold panic that I will end up a penniless loser with no life plan, and longing to do something enriching and challenging and different from the well trodden path, I am going to go and teach English in Indonesia later on this year, indefinitely. Fingers crossed! I put this moodboard together to take pride of place in my room, reminding me during the panic moments of what I'm aiming for and that no matter what else, there is always a beginning.

Thailand photo diary