Practically perfect

I could get used to starting every Monday morning the way I started this one:

1. Wake up early feeling fully rested
2. Remember that there is nothing that I have to get up for and lie there for an hour daydreaming and enjoying the feeling of the cool white sheets on my skin
3. Stir from my thoughts and get out of bed to put on my bikini
4. Walk the 50m from our room to the water's edge. Observe that I am the only person on the beach.
5. Briefly contemplate running along said beach. Think better of it.
6. Wade out until the water is waist deep and then plunge into the cool water headfirst
7. Swim and float and splash to my heart's content.
8. Spy a really cool starfish in the water
9. Return to shore and dry off under a palm tree whilst a nice young man brings me a freshly brewed cup of coffee.
10. Be joined by two really good friends for breakfast

There's not much missing from that picture. I'd just like the National Theatre to come on tour here once in a while.

But before you think it's totally perfect on Big Corn, I thought I'd share with you some details of one of the harsher realities of 8 weeks' travel - hand washing...

A quick tally of how many days we had remaining and how many items of clean clothing I had left led me to the unfortunate conclusion that my hand washing liquid was going to come in useful one more time.

Once the scrubbing was over, I then had a difficult dilemma... is it bad form to hang out your underwear to dry from one of the pagodas at a smart Caribbean resort?

In the end, necessity overcame scruples and our little beach shack has been much improved by the addition of some colourful decoration!

In any case I am mighty glad that I live in a time and place where washing machines are commonplace. How our grandparents' generation coped without and managed to get everything so clean is beyond me. Although I haven't yet tried Gemma's interesting technique of stamping on things in the shower... perhaps that's the secret!

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Location:Big Corn Island, Nicaragua