Mr C and myself have returned from a wonderful holiday in Antigua, fully relaxed, refreshed and revived. For most of the time we just chilled, ate delicious food, soaked up the sun and read our books. We do also have a bit of a guilty pleasure which may sound a bit strange but we listened to ‘The Archers’ on podcast. There’s nothing quite like catching up on Eddie Grundy’s latest exploits while lying on a Caribbean beach with a cocktail in your hand!

We did mix it up a bit and explored the island too. It’s a beautiful place with as many as 365 beaches, and lots of fantastic wildlife.

One of the highlights of our holiday, however, was to see the annual carnival. This is almost like a smaller version of Rio, with the most amazing bands and dancing groups. The noise, chaos and vibrant colours were joyous to behold and you couldn’t help but join in with the dancing and partying. Particularly striking were the costumes, with an array of feathers, sequins and fabric structured into enormous bird like outfits.

We were so privileged to be able to see this spectacle, but what particularly struck me was the fact that, even though many of the female dancers were quite overweight, they had not one jot of self consciousness. Instead there seemed to be this wonderful feeling of body confidence – whatever size, shape, colour they were – it really did not matter, as they were just caught up in the spirit of the day.

Of course we all know that it is not healthy to be overweight, but as a society we are also far too obsessed with being perfect, when if only we could accept ourselves as we are. There is a song which has the following lyrics which I love :

‘All of me loves all of you, love your curves and all your edges, all your perfect imperfections’.

Happy holidays everyone,
Wendy x