Finding a balance.

02/12/17
Arthritis / Autism / General

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This week Ben and I where very blessed to get two nights away to Galgorm Resort and Spa.

This is by far Bens favourite type of holiday or break and all other chances of booking holidays in the year are a total no go unless there is space and budget for at least one trip to Galgorm.

We try to visit once or twice a year, always for Bens birthday around February and then around October for our anniversary.

After a stressful the few months, we were both so in need of some rest, relaxation and an unbroken nights sleep!!

We started off Wednesday with a trip to the Royal for Eli to get a check up with his surgeon, ( you wait ages for appointments and they ALWAYS end up being when you have other things on, never the quiet weeks). It went well, as expected Eli will need more surgery, unexpectedly they are going to check things out with a camera first before starting the corrective surgery. Assuming that everything hasn’t magically healed since November this will now mean 7/8 surgeries instead of 6/7 but I do still feel this is a good decision. So Elijah will face surgery again in around 4/5 weeks so I assume in real terms it’ll be 9/10 weeks but time will tell.

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After we dropped Eli off with my mum, Ben and I headed to Middletown Coffee shop for some amazing stew and delicious Eton Mess éclair. I have to say this was an amazing start to our little break, the food was lovely the coffee perfect and the staff funny and friendly. It chilled us out after the hospital and put us in good spirits for our trip. We also stopped off at Flossy Treats, a fab little sweet shop (where Megan is having her birthday party), and stocked up on some lovely sweets to take away with us.

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When we arrived we where greeted at the door by the wonderful concierce decked out in his most dapper suit and hat. He then passed us on to Maurice who took our bags and showed us where to check and and waited until we had finished so he could show us to our room and explain how everything worked and that we could head down to the spa straight away. We have stayed in various room types over the years and this time we where in one of the deluxe river view rooms which was lovely. Some of the perks of this room are a free mini bar and a free late check out of 12pm, (which made the morning very relaxed).

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Both Ben and I where exhausted, Eli hasn’t been sleeping great and with Bens medication being changed around his sleep pattern is all over the place and combined with my arthritis in flare up there hasn’t been much sleep going on in the Clarke house the past few months. So we both decided to chill in the room till we went to dinner at 6pm. I took the opportunity to start a new book, (by Lucy Diamond) and Ben had a sleep.

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We decided to have both meals in Gillies as its our favourite, place to eat but we also had the option of the river room, (fine dining) or Fratellis (Italian). Both Ben and I opted for salt and chilli chicken to start and steak as a main, I had mine medium rare and it was cooked to perfection. Apart from being sat by the fire place and melting a wee bit by the end of the meal, it was pretty much perfect and pudding was amazing, sticky toffee pudding.

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After dinner we headed down to the spa which is open until 9pm and we always find it to be nice and quiet in the evenings. It was a lovely relaxing evening, and we where very keen to get into the steam rooms having walked in from the pool outside!

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Breakfast in Galgorm is one of the reasons we keep going back, you just cant beat it. as we where staying in a deluxe room we had the option of going to the river room for breakfast but on both mornings we opted for Gillies, Here you have choice of fruit, yogurt, pastries, cheese, porridge, crepes, waffles, cereal and full cooked breakfast. It is always lovely quality and the staff are very helpful and friendly and we had the added bonus of being able to watch the horses and their little goat friend getting their breakfast in the stables outside. Its a very relaxing atmosphere an we always feel full to the brim.

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We spent most of the morning and early afternoon in the spa again and enjoyed some light snacks in the oranagey as well as a delicious cocktail, sure we where on holiday after all!! Our second night we again enjoyed dinner in gillies again both having steak, however this time I had soup to start and it was delicious and full of flavour and I couldn’t resist my favourite, sticky toffee pudding again for desert.

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We again made use of the spa in the evening and again in the morning without having to rush due to our later check out.

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Honestly there is just no place I have found that is more relaxing, friendly and accommodating. I find it very rare to get a hotel that ticks all the boxes but this one truly does. I guess the only down side is that it totally has us spoilt for ever staying anywhere else. I know that this will always be our go to place.

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It can be difficult to leave the kids or up sticks and forget the real world for a few days but I think that in life it really helps to step back. I know that I have been letting the little things in life build into big things and this break just helped to defuse that. It helped Ben and I to laugh again and its recharged us for a year full of surgery and treatments but now we are ready to tackle it all head on.

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http://www.galgorm.com

www.facebook.com/flossytreatsgalgorm/

www.facebook.com/mtowncoffee

www.facebook.com/lonelycaterpillar/

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