The Beautician from hell

Woke up to a trail of clothes, shoes, clutch... from door to bed, had flashbacks to the night previous and then the little council worker in my head reminded me how much I'd had to drink. Haha, serves you right, says all my jealous friends, that I finally get a hangover.

Nevertheless, I had promised A I would meet him on Skype so get up I did. I had mentioned I was going out so didn't have to rush so much - wasn't possible anyway - and got to Seaside to have a nice chat with him. Afterwards, I took Chico swimming bareback and man, I have NOT been on a more uncomfortable horse in my life bareback!!! Ouch, even just walking. That horse needs some more fat on him.

Got some lovely pictures of me in the water, luckily the photographer that snaps the tourists on some days was hanging around with nothing to do so she came down for a mini photo shoot. Most of the pics I am laughing as he was not cooperating very well, being a young'un n all, and some it's obvious I am almost coming off. But good times all round. Had a call from I saying they'd found my wallet in the back of his sister's car so yay!

Just could not motivate myself to do anything today, so sat and ate a toastie, drank a smoothie, played on the internet after A had to go (such sad times), talked with the staff and then eventually moved myself to get my errands done. Ended up being easiest just to go to Philipsburg to do everything, including a bikini wax.

Pure hell.

After several unsuccessful attempts and questioning of locals as to a waxing salon (come on, I found one 2 doors from the shop I bought my replacement flip flops from!!), I came to a Spanish-speaking one that actually offered waxing. It was same minimal set-up I'd seen in so many of the places I'd chosen to have random women rip hair out of private places, yet this one was much different.

I soon learnt that she had actually no training in waxing whatsoever, and the resulting experience was horrendous. I have never been in such pain from waxing and - after I'd paid and already disrobed on the beach - I look down to discover she had pulled so hard that she'd actually bruised both sides of my bikni line so the whole point of tidying myself up to look nicer on a beach was completely obliterated. Part of me wanted to go back and demand a refund - the other part realised my Spanish wasn't good enuf to argue and it was just a "never to return" lesson. Fuck the demon barber, this woman was straight from the firey depths of hell.

Fell asleep on Great Bay beach and woke to tingling skin, so turned myself over until I realised it was inching dangerously close to my kayak appointment late afternoon. So I headed back home to change my clothes and limber up for my first kayaking experience - minus a shower or refill of my water as we had no water due to someone sabotaging a big pipe for no apparent reason.

The lesson was at sundown, a beautiful time to see Pelican Bay. The teacher, S, a South African, was lovely and a great instructor. He gave some harder kayaks to the others so they were falling out all the time - meanwhile I was gliding along no troubles. Well, some troubles. Still a lot of work to do. But I stayed on board the whole time, apparently quite a feat for a first-timer.

Afterwards, we stayed around La Bamba for a few drinks. I met S's wife, M, and got along really well with her. She's a little older, was telling me she didn't have her daughter til 45 (a little late for me but proves you can do it!), and all the things she was saying about her and S... made me think that's what A and I will be like at that age. With a whole lot of adventures and discovery behind them, and a wonderful life settled on the island now. I wonder where we will end up settling in this big, crazy world...

M is actually a Londoner, still has her accent so I could pick it straight away, but as I talked with her I didn't think much else of the big, smoky city had stuck with her. Until we walked to the carpark to see her shiny, new Mini Cooper. You can take the girl out of London...

Was quite typical of the island, the crowd we had at La Bamba. Me, an Australian, a Dutch woman, a South African man, a Greek woman, an English woman and someone else, probably Dutch. Kinda cool actually.

Really liked the social aspect of the kayaking, and decided that I should be filling my days with activities like this that either run into the night or send me home nice n tired so I can just sleep through to the next day with more activities! I hope I can keep up the kayaking because it will strengthen me and get me fit, but also I want to get to zumba one of these days and of course keep working hard at Seaside. I'm gonna come back to A with a tight, tanned physique! Let the competition begin, baby.