I'm back from my holiday! I'm pleased to say it was fabulous - lots of fun, sunshine and booze! Gran Canaria's a beautiful place - and suprisingly varied in its vegetation. I expected the beaches and volcanic soil.. but I didn't expect pine trees!!
This is the bungalow complex we stayed at, with its gorgeous pool which I made full use of:



The landscapes on the island ranged from arid canyons...



...to lush greenery...



..to tropical trees..



(And yes, I know I took way too many pictures with my new fish eye lens converter - I'm a typical snap happy type tourist!)
The week flew by as we relaxed by the pool, took a coach trip around the island, visited local villages, went to a wildlife park and even made fools of ourselves at a water-slide theme park. Well, only I made a fool of myself by zooming out of a waterslide very ungracefully, making a massive splash in the pool at the bottom and falling out of my bikini top for good measure and everyone's "pleasure"!
I drank a lot of sangria that night...

Thankfully all my worries about travel with the RA were mostly unfounded. The hand flare subsided on the second day there - I dont know if it was just coincidence, or the influence of the de-stressing, the sunshine and the change of scene.
The first day I had to walk about like a crazy lady with a bag of frozen peas permanenty attached to keep my hand cool and let me enjoy myself, but after that it calmed down. It's crazy how one day a finger can look like a giant hot sausage and the next it's pretty much normal.

My feet behaved also, and I did more walking than I've had the courage to do for MONTHS. Thank you, comfy sandals! I even painted my toenails..



Mmm..feet.. usually they kind of gross me out, but my own feet, sockless, with painted nails is a rare sight so I thought I'd share. I need to do more walking as I think the combination of the Scottish long winter and my fear of huring myself have made me lazy - more on that in a later post though.

The only thing that gave me a bit of bother all week were my knees, after our first long day of walking, on Tuesday. I was fine all morning and until about 2pm, but then I just crashed. Unfortunately we were far away from the hotel and I just had to grin and bear it, meaning that for 3 hours afterwards I had to lie down and rest. I had a little cry, the only time I let the RA get me down during the whole week, but I snapped out of it by the evening and even had a little swim which made me feel better.
After that the knees were fine and I had no trouble worth mentioning for the rest of the week. Oh and I didn't take any anti inflammatories or painkillers.

So - a resounding success!
Now, it's back to work. I've unpacked and am quite tired, so I think I'll have a beer and plan ahead for my next holiday which just happens to be in 3 weeks! I know, a bit ridiculous. But hey - whatever keeps us going, right?