How I Accidentally Ended Up in Santorini and Tested My Money Mindset
Why Greece has my heart
If there’s one thing you should know about me, it’s that I love Greece. There’s no reason for it, no particular connection, no childhood holidays - I just, one day, decided that I had to get there and that I loved it. Luckily, when I finally got there, I actually did love it!
Not so luckily, the first year we went was 2019 so the pandemic prevented us going back for a few years and then there were the years that Dr Chris was living in Sweden and I was living in the UK so our holidays were spent visiting each other - a joint vacation elsewhere felt undoable (although maybe I wasn’t trying hard enough).
I was lucky enough to be invited to a friend’s home in Crete last year, and we took a detour to Athens but with a family wedding in the UK in September this year some other commitments and trying to avoid school holidays, it seemed a Greek getaway would be postponed until next year. But I was wrong!!
A Wedding, Finding Kinship and Five Whole Weeks Away!
We travelled over for the family wedding at the end of September, after a week Dr Chris came back and I carried on further to Nottingham. I was due to stay for around two weeks but I accidentally booked a weeks holiday to Santorini with two friends! That meant I had to reschedule my flight home and made my three week stay more like five weeks!
I had a load of content here planned and sheduled, including social media posts and newsletters, and I’d (very cleverly in my humble opinion) scheduled enough so that I had a few days to recalibrate when I came back but, of course, there wasn’t enough to cover the extra week and a half, so the momentum here was lost a little. I’m not too worried about that - I’m working on making this business work around me, not like the shop - although, if somebody could tell my nervous system that a couple of missed weeks is no big deal I’d be grateful.
Anyway, I had a fabulous time!
The wedding was lovely! A proper wedding at a posh venue - there was a violinist, a magician, ice cream, a live band, piglets and donkeys. It was good to catch up with Dr Chris’s family and I’ll be totally honest, it was amazing to be around people who appreciated my sense of humour and outgoingness. There are a lot of things I love about Sweden, and I’ve met many sweet people, but I am not lagom and never will be. A reminder that people appreciate me in my fullness was something I didn’t know I needed.
Nottingham was also wonderful. I caught up with some friends and family, not as many as I might have liked as I felt a bit under the weather with various things so I stuck close to the people I was staying with and concentrated on really enjoying that and relaxing. I did manage to go to the Natural History Museum in London, Gulliver’s Kingdom in Matlock and Clumber Park though. I also drove a bit in my mum’s car which was really delightful. Ate fish and chips four times, Greggs three times and proper sausages many many times (including as an accompaniment to a trifle).
A ‘Budget-Friendly’ Greek Getaway.
The holiday was a jokey suggestion from one of the friends I was staying with, not thinking I’d say yes, but it was an absolute bargain and I couldn’t resist! Seven days, flights and transfers for three of us for £560. I’ve got to say, it wasn’t in the financial plan, and we all know a holiday is not just the hotel and flights so I spent a few days thinking I’d made a cock up but once we got there it was just such a delight it was worth it.
Money Mindset and Holiday Funds
I used to have a specific holiday fund when I was earning which I would add to every week. I did that because I realised that holidays are so important to me but I struggled to spend such a lump of money at once which meant I was avoiding booking them or if I did I was focussing on how cheap I could make it (which also has it’s benefits). Having an amount of money which was for my holidays and nothing else was very freeing for me and saw me taking more holidays in more varied locations. It was a game changer. I’m managing my money differently these days, which I’m sure I’ll talk about over time, so I had a reminder of how I used to feel - and I didn’t like it! Mindset is a tricky thing!
My friend isn’t rolling in it so we set out to have a ‘cheap’ holiday - not much eating out, mostly chilling by the pool and I think we achieved that. I did a couple of hikes up the mountain behind our hotel, accidentally finding a fantastic archaeological site I didn’t know existed and another day eating a fresh spinach pastry by a perfect Greek church nestled in the side of a mountain. We swam in the sea a couple of times and took the bus to Fira - a gorgey medieval town built into the steep sides of the mountains. Overall just chilled and relaxed.
Back To Business
So that’s what I’ve been up to! And why I’ve not been posting for a week or so. Next week will be back to normal (fingers crossed) and luckily I’ve got a list as long as my arm of things to talk about because I’ll be honest, my brain totally switched off from this whilst I was away!
Other exciting news is though, I’ve had the go ahead from my accountant that I can start selling!!! That happened a couple of days before I went away so I chose to leave it until I came back. There are a few things to put in place but it’s me holding things up now, not Swedish bureaucracy.
Love,
Eleanor. xxx
