From Wales with love… — Gladrags & Bags

Continuing the theme of visiting as many countries as possible, as many times as possible this year. we headed for the tropical land of Wales. Specifically North Wales.

If you’ve followed me for a while you’ll know that pre 2020 Chris and I had visited Wales once in 26 years together, and that was just a day trip to Cardiff.

But since the pandemic came along and grounded us for a while, we have visited Wales 5 times! 5 times since September 2020.

And every time it has been absolutely amazing.

We’ve Always had the most incredible weather. We feel very at home in Wales. It’s become a sanctuary and our happy place

We started coming to Portmeirion as a day visitor. In all honesty I thought it was only a day visitor tourist attraction.

When we found out on our first visit that all the buildings throughout the village are hotel accommodation. We booked in to stay straight away,to go back and stay, and have made a point of staying in as many as possible. Trying out all the different suites.

We stayed in Telford’s Tower on this trip at the weekend, and it is now by far our favourite. It’s central in the village, with amazing views.

The handy thing with staycations (not strictly a staycation I appreciate, that term usually means holidaying at home. But I’m using it as apposed to going abroad), is you get to pack everything - and the kitchen sink, into the car.

As someone who likes to pack for a holiday as if I’m going to shit myself every day (the irony is not lost on me that I don’t ever now need 30 pairs of underwear with me at all times - just in case, and yet I still pack as if I do!).

I’m not someone that packs light. I don’t know how! I mean what if I need an emergency ball gown or scuba wear!!?

Our weekends away at Portmerion are blissful. I take everything I need, and everything I might not need, but I want with me, and it feels good.

This trip we invited Ben and Kaitlyn along too.

We’ve been singing the praises of Portmeirion since we discovered it in September 2020. We absolutely love it.

(It’s a fantasy village created on a private peninsula. It’s quite a tricky one to describe, but I’ve done a bit of copy and pasting from Google for your information;

“Clough Williams-Ellis designed and constructed the village between 1925 and 1975. He incorporated fragments of demolished buildings, including works by a number of other architects.

Portmeirion's architectural bricolage and deliberately fanciful nostalgia have been noted as an influence on the development of postmodernism in architecture in the late 20th century.

Williams-Ellis, Portmeirion's architect, denied repeated claims that the design was based on the fishing village of Portofino on the Italian Riviera. He stated only that he wanted to pay tribute to the atmosphere of the Mediterranean. He did, however, draw on a love of the Italian village stating, "How should I not have fallen for Portofino? Indeed, its image remained with me as an almost perfect example of the man-made adornment and use of an exquisite site."

Portmeirion is now owned by a charitable trust and has always been run as a hotel, which uses the majority of the buildings as hotel rooms or self-catering cottages, together with shops, a cafe, tea-room, and restaurant. Portmeirion is today a major tourist attraction in North Wales and day visits can be made on payment of an admission charge.

The village was the setting of the inaugural Festival No.6 which took place in September 2012 and featured headline acts. The festival then ran each year in September at Portmeirion until 2018, when the festival organisers announced that the festival would be taking an indefinite break.

Portmeirion is also the location of the 60s cult classic, The Prisoner)”.

So our long weekend away started well with 2 Greggs vegan sausage rolls, a Belgium bun and a Costa hot chocolate on the journey. (I am nothing if not predictable).

I wore a loose fitting dress to travel in, I’m always keen to avoid leaks but even more so when we have people in the car with us.

I was travelling with family, but still I’d rather avoid any embarrassment. They’d be fine about it. But for my own self esteem I’d rather avoid leaks at all cost. Call it a personal preference.

Is there anything you can’t do with a stoma? I’ve given this a lot of thought and apart from use my bum hole in the traditional way I’m pretty sure there’s nothing that can’t be done.

Am I a good example for this? Nope! I’m pretty boring really. I’m not one for jumping out of planes or bungee jumping or rock climbing, abseiling, pot holing or sailing solo round the globe.

I could do all those things if I was the type. But I really couldn’t be further from that type if I tried.

I am dull, boring, lacking of inclination.

I even decided to give up going to concerts a couple of weeks ago because the noise cranked up my tinnitus! I’m pretty feeble to be honest, so if you’re after inspiration of what is possible with a stoma I’m probably not your gal.

If, on the other hand you want to dress well, and see amazing places to eat I’m here for you! Food! Now that is an area of personal expertise.

Dress from Monsoon, Bag from Chloe, Shoes from Hermes

Chris and I love Portmeirion, but it was still nerve racking to take people there. What if it’s just us that love it? What if other people find it boring or dull or worse.

Well, we needn’t have worried. They loved it as much as us.

It obviously helped that the sun shone. But they found it as charmingly bonkers we do.

And a little behind the scenes footage from the world of Gladrags and bags…

This man is my absolute hero. I can’t ever think why I got this lucky. Just a chance meeting at a mutual friend’s party and here we are nearly 30 years later and he’s still the hotty I fell for, love at first sight.

He has this good energy, he radiates possibility, hope and positivity. If you ever wonder how I’m so body confident and happy with how life turned out, look no further than him. :)

There are two restaurants to choose from for meals at Portmeirion, there’re cafes and snacks available throughout the village, but for evening meals whilst staying at the resort, there are a choice of 2 restaurants. Castle Deudraeth and the main hotel.

For more choice on the menu I’d suggest solely dining at the castle for evening meals. I happen to forget this every time we book the holiday and end up regretting not remembering in time.

The hotel at the bottom of the hill is great for breakfasts. But for dinner? It’s quite restrictive for the fussy eaters amongst us (Yes, I know I mentioned Greggs vegan sausage rolls earlier, so I’m not that fussy clearly. I just have a very juvenile palate).

The castle meal was really good.

We walked around the grounds after. We headed to the beach, where Ben stripped off and headed for an island he’d noticed from the swimming pool area.

Chris stayed, fully clothed, by the rocks at the edge of the beach, Kaitlyn and I tucked our dresses in our knickers and waded across the very low tide of the estuary. See, the place has something for everyone, including those that enjoy various states of undress. :)

Saturday in Portmeirion was spent showing Kaitlyn and Ben our favourite places in the attraction.

Top from Harrods (about 5 years ago, this was the first time I wore it), Shorts from Tesco, Shoes from Gina

We took them for a walk to explore the coastline and forest walks. Me, not being the fittest of people was hyperventilating by the end of it.

I always panic that we’ve walked too far and ended up lost. Until we come to the boundary wall and I realise, yet again, it isn’t actually possible to get lost and walk too far.

It’s not even that many steps, it just feels like it is because it’s hilly, and I’m from very flat Essex.

Beach cover up from TK Maxx, Shoes from Gina

Bikini from Tesco

I will wear a bikini until I no longer wish to. There’s no time frame, there’s no size frame, just a personal choice and no one else’s opinion of that choice is going to sway it.

I was recently heckled (trolled) on Instagram for wearing a bikini. One complaint was about me having my bag on show…to which I responded “mind you’re own fucking business” and one was a weight related complaint to which I responded “mind you’re own fucking business”

I think it covered everything I needed to say, eloquence personified me!!

But anyone trying to control how others behave when it’s none of their business is so bizarre. They were complete strangers (or at least I assume they are, I don’t know anyone mental enough to create accounts just to say mean things to people - hopefully) yet they felt they had the right to be rude. This world is a very weird place at times.

So just to recap - every body is a bikini body (if they choose to bikini), I, or anyone else with a stoma don’t need to cover up (unless they want to).

It’s really very simple. :)

Swimming, hot tubbing, steam rooms and massages are all perfectly possible with a stoma.

I took plenty of choices of clothing with me, which was a bit of luck as I put a dress on only too find it had been mis stitched and there was a gaping hole in the back of it.

The only disappointments to our stay was a recent wedding there had wiped them out of all their non alcoholic beers. Which only left Seedlip, which I don’t mind too much. It makes a grown up tasting, non alcoholic version of a G&T, but as I never liked gin to start with, it’s not my first choice.

One of the only downsides of holidaying in the UK (second only to the weather) is the lack of availability of something non alcoholic for those of us that don’t drink.

(I’m currently in Spain. And the difference is staggering. The supermarket has about 20 different 0.0 beer choices, and our favourite restaurant has a variety of bottled zero beers and Heineken 0 on draught).

It’s almost as if not drinking in the UK is deemed weird. Hahaha. Honestly it actually is. If you say you don’t drink, rather than just accept it and move on, people always say “why?”. Which I find incredibly funny.

If you knew me before I stopped you perhaps wouldn’t ask. Hahaha. ;)

We had such a lovely stay. The weather helps of course. But it is such a beautiful place to spend time. We’ve already got one trip here booked for next year. But who knows. There may be more in the pipeline. :)

We headed off towards home, but first I wanted to visit a village called Ynys, where you can get an incredible view of Portmeirion from the other side of the estuary.

It’s a spectacular sight. I’ve been wanting to go over there the moment we found Portmeirion, but I didn’t know where the village over there was, but I heard some people talking about it and I asked them how to get there. So we did. :)

Then we headed to a castle for a look round. I’m not a huge fan of castles, my preference would be stately homes, because I love nosing round houses. RightMove has become a hobby like status. :)

But Harlech Castle was definitely worth a visit. And there’s a deli in the village where we had the most delicious lunch, with a Peroni zero.

It also boasts the steepest street in the world (which did seem quite steep, but I’ve no idea if they’re over egging the ‘world’ status part. That one we went to in San Francisco seemed pretty steep too, so who knows).

An amazing Italian sharing platter, And a very good ice cream shop too…

Things that define my personality;

Doing as I please

Viewing properties online

Eating ice cream

Eating food in general

Spreading stoma positivity

…but mainly the ice cream and food bit. ;)

We got home from Wales on Sunday night.

We then flew out to our little Spain house Monday afternoon.

We had a very easy time getting through security. Always buy Fast Track, it’s worth it. It was heaving at the airport, it just makes life so much easier to get Fast Track and an airport lounge.

My experience through security was a very positive one. I set the metal detector off, I always do due to a bracelet that can only be undone with a screwdriver.

I stepped straight into the body scanner. I mentioned my colostomy, as it flags up I need to tell them.

I was then thoroughly checked by a member of staff. She patted me down, plus she went over me with the wand. What she didn’t do is in anyway humiliate me in front of people.

She understood what I meant when I said I had a colostomy. She checked me properly, but left my dignity in tact.

Perhaps the staff at Heathrow could do with some of the same training.

What I don’t want as an ostomate is to feel victimised and outraged by the treatment I receive. It’s not too much to ask for people to be well trained for all situations.

My experience and treatment at Heathrow in May was shameful.

Stansted have been problematic in the past, but have been so much better since I wrote to them and explained the situation.

ie, People with stomas are no more likely to be criminals than people with any orifices, so unless they are planning on checking every bum hole that passes through the airport, they can definitely treat people with stomas well too.

Check thoroughly yes, but don’t needlessly humiliate.