April's Travel Link-Up: Guilty Pleasures

I'm absolutely delighted to be co-hosting this month's Travel Link-Up with Kelly, Emma and Rebecca. I'm not so delighted that in doing so I'm going to have to let you in on some very closely guarded secrets.

When the topic of 'guilty pleasures' was floated, quite a few memories sprung to mind. And the more I thought about these memories, the more it dawned on me that in allowing myself to give in to temptation, I frequently commit not one, not two but ALL SEVEN of the deadly sins. Deep breath...it's confession time.

Greed

I was a pretty average young girl. I devoured books about princesses and castles, sat for hours in front of Disney films, and was quite convinced that one day I would run away on some fantastic adventure, marry a prince and live happily ever after ruling over my kingdom. So far, pretty normal. Except that these daydreams didn't really stop when I was eleven.

OK, I got over the ruling my own kingdom bit shortly after my true soulmate Prince William married Kate, but the dream about living in a beautiful place with luxury all around me continued.  Luxury hotels are my nemesis. I'm quite partial to a luxury staycation, to a weekend break in a luxury suite, and when a new luxury hotel opens up nearby, I can't help going inside for a good snoop around. I suppose it's quite fitting really that I came to live in decadent Doha where five star hotels are ten a penny!

Oh, and in case you were wondering about the prince bit, well I think I might just have found him!

Gluttony

Any Follow Your Sunshine devotees will know that I am as gluttonous as they come. There is nothing I love more than gorging on afternoon tea (preferably in one of those five star hotels I mentioned above).

And I love the excuse to try new cuisines and restaurant concepts, often using the excuse, "it's for the blog!" as we head out the door for our fifth meal out that week. If you want to get an idea about how many restaurants I've been to in the past few weeks on our island home, The Pearl alone, then this is quite a good yardstick. And this is just a top 6 list!

Travelling gives me an even better excuse to indulge in my gluttonous side of course. You can't leave a place without sampling every aspect of the local cuisine now, can you?

While travelling, I have been known to have 6 meals in one day, to snaffle up friends' uneaten leftovers in restaurants, and even on occasion, to eat until I make myself sick. But hey, there is only so much food in the world and a limited time to try it all in!

Pride

Pride is a guilty pleasure that I actually think would do us all the world of good to indulge in a bit more! When was the last time you sat back and had a good think about all the bloody amazing things you've achieved in your life and all of the amazing places you've been to? Or patted yourself on the back for all those times when things could have gone terribly wrong, but you clawed your way back because, well, you're just a little bit brilliant? Or just proud that you're making it as a blogger in this huge blogging world. I'm letting you, me and everyone off this one because it's needed. Just so long as you don't think you're better than everyone else. Or better than you actually are. Nobody likes arrogance folks.

Now back to the confessions...

Wrath

You might think that there is nothing pleasurable about anger, but I am a Brit and therefore I think that a good old angry moan about something can be particularly therapeutic. When I'm travelling I particularly enjoy a good grumble about anything that threatens my British sensibilities. Like people jumping queues. Like the lack of English Breakfast teabags in hotel rooms. Or when someone brings you a tea without milk. Actually, about anything that has an adverse impact on the delivery of a good cup of tea.

Since moving to Qatar, I've noticed the kinds of things I get cross about have changed slightly. Now when I'm travelling I get cross when the temperature dips below 20 degrees celsius and when it rains for more than half an hour at a time. And don't get me started on bad driving and traffic jams.

Moaning about these things (over a cup of tea of course) is a definite guilty pleasure.

Lust

This one gets me every time. And NO, I am not talking about that kind of lust, naughty! I am talking about bag lust, shoe lust, outfit lust, or any kind of shoppping-related lust in general... If anything, this is worse than the other, more controllable type of lust. Sometimes I get this overwhelming urge to splurge which comes from nowhere and I just have to go and do something about it. It's at its worst when I'm travelling and I'm surrounded by all kinds of new treats and goodies.

But it also doesn't help that where I live I'm surrounded by designer outlets, which call out my name every time I walk past. Of all of these, Chloe holds the most temptation for me.

With its pretty as a picture handbags, clean pastel clothing lines and rows of perfectly heeled shoes, I give in to this guilty pleasure and take a detour through the shop to ogle at the collections on a regular basis on my way up to my flat.

For anyone that's interested, these are the new Drew bags...aren't they pretty?!

I feel I have been very good thus far though. I mean, I live directly above a Diptique shop and haven't even bought one pretty smelling candle in all the time I've lived here. Very restrained for a blogger, no?!

Rich might disagree about my restraint however...

Envy

If there's one guilty pleasure that I indulge in on a daily basis, then it's planning my next getaway. I'm currently building an itinerary for our honeymoon in Italy, which is going to involve a couple of weeks on the Amalfi Coast, and I'm therefore lapping up all advice I can get on the subject through books, online review sites and travel blogs. Ahhh, travel blogs. My favourite guilty pleasure. But reading them inevitably leads to the mother of all evils: travel envy.

Recent travel envy was induced by Adventures of A London Kiwi

Right now for instance I'm currently envious over Angie's travels in South Africa, Catherine's ambles in Australia, Hannah's recent escape to Bali, Milly's trip down memory lane in NYC...I could go on! Nevertheless, I love living vicariously through these little internet outlets for a couple of hours a night, when I should be getting on with my own, real life. Which leads me nicely to...

Sloth

Despite having a busy and demanding job, keeping a blog running, planning a wedding and managing to hold down some semblance of a social life at the same time, internally I am actually an incredibly lazy oaf. While away from home, my favourite place to be is lounging on the bed with a blanket over me, man by my side, usually with my hand in a bag of Maltesers/mini Oreos/popcorn, and Game of Thrones on the laptop/TV. Or by a pool with an icy Margherita in hand. Or on a beach with an ice cream. I'm not fussy, just so long as I'm assuming the lounging position.

Being lazy seems to be even more pleasurable when there's something important I have to do, or a deadline looming. I have to admit that even when I had pencilled in a couple of hours to write this post, I ended up taking myself out for a mani and pedi instead. Whoops!

But even though it was by the skin of my teeth, I still managed to write it in time for the 1st of April, and that's the important thing, right?!

Over to you!

An InLinkz Link-up