Our hotel was a 10 minute walk along the beach from our elder son, Kenneth's, girlfriend's parents' home. (Have I mentioned that Kenneth's girlfriend is Mauritian, and they were spending Christmas and New Year with Natalie's parents, and we had decided to tag along?)
Our previous visit to Mauritius was in 2001. So we have made a promise to ourselves to return to Mauritius well within the next 10 years!
As you can gather we ate well, drank indulgently... but no hangovers!... and were treated royally to all the best that Mauritius could offer. Sunset cruises accompanied by dolphins, a range of cocktails that Tom Cruise would envy and surrounded by a service industry that is unique in its approach to customer care!
Now there is a flip side to enjoying paradise. Yes, you guessed it. Down to earth with a bump, well more a smooth landing at Heathrow and a cancelled flight home to Glasgow. Sooooo... not the perfect return to the UK. Twenty hours after setting off from Mauritius we have a bed for the night at a Heathrow airport hotel and the promise of a flight home in the morning! This was just the beginning of the besetting and beleaguering episodes that were sent to try... No I am not moaning, although I was then, and when the Largs lurgie from hell descended on my sinuses you can bet there were a few moans coming from under the duvet. However I also reflected that every time a little cloud on life's sky appeared... clouds such as earache, headache, sore throat, coughs and sneezes, deafness tra-la-la... I went back in time and caught a memory, a silver lining and promised myself that I would enjoy each and every day with the same sense of joy that I had while being massaged in the eye of the storm.
Merci beaucoup, Jenny, for giving me a massage that will last a lifetime! you are only the best masseuse ever...