Do you suffer from "vacation guilt"?

After last months blog post featuring my story about the volcano scramble in the dark, I went in search of my old photos.  Now it was 1995, way before digital, so I have thousands of photos printed out and kept in a box, all with explanations written on the back (luckily as I remember so little).  Sadly there is no photo of the sunrise from the top of the volcano, or of the eggs boiling in the vents.  Here is one sunset I snapped at Tanalot Temple on Bali's south coast.

And here is another sunset photo I snapped just last month in Bali, with my 2 kids playing on the beach in the foreground.

I do love this photo of the temple on the lake at the foot of the volcano, I took this photo the day after my volcano climb back in 1995.

So having found those photos, I have now discovered that I had been to Bingin Beach (where we stayed this time) 23 years ago.  Here is a photo of us about to board a little local fishing boat for a day trip down the peninsula to Bingin.

Here is a photo of my best friend Lorraine & I swimming off Bingin Beach.  

Lorraine & I have been friends since we were 19 years old and studied together at Fashion College and then both worked for Billabong.  Lorraine now runs a company called BALI RETREATS and they organized our whole amazing vacation, and did an amazing job.  Click through to her website to see the DREAMY villa's they book.  So here is how Bingin Beach looked all those years ago - just a few little huts on the cliff in the rainforest.

Nowadays it is way more commercial, but still stunning cliffs and rainforest and crystal clear water.

Bali I think has been made even more exotic and famous since we all read the book Eat, Pray, Love.  I recently watched the movie, just so that I could take in the exotic of Bali all over again.  Sipping ice cold sundowners whilst watching the sun set over the sea has definitely recharged me.

I felt a little guilty for having a vacation.  Is that weird?  Do any of you get vacation guilt?  I felt like I had to justify having a vacation to anyone I told I was going.  My justification involves the fact that I hadn't had a vacation since we went to Costa Rica from St.Maarten back in 2010.

Since our move back to Australia in 2011, we have spent every minute and every cent, on building our house and setting up our new life 'down under'.  Building a house, having 2 more babies, and non-stop work on West Indies Wear, and for some of that time I was still designing the Heineken Regatta Collection too.  Here is a photo of me with my baby Evie, who was born just months after we left the Caribbean and moved to Australia.  That rock wall behind me is now the rock wall behind my house....the house that wasn't there when this photo was taken.  I feel I could justify a little vacation.  Are you guys ok with it?

So we went for 2 weeks.... I felt I needed to justify that too?  TWO WEEKS !! Our first week we stayed in this most amazing villa in the south, click here to see the photos.  We shared this with another family, my husband's cousin and family we haven't seen for many years came over from New Zealand and we had an awesome time together.  The kids just LOVED spending time with their cousins, and we got all these amazing photos of the big girls modeling my goodies.

That's my big girl above, who was a little Caribbean girl for so long, now looking terrifyingly grown up!  I took about 12 sarongs with me, and we all just shared them, between the two teenagers, the two mom's and little Evie who is now 7.  Here is my little mermaid in her mermaid sarong.

It worked out great, because we each just chose our sarong to suit our vibe for the day.  Here are the two teenagers, watching their dad's surf.

Here I am wearing a Tropical Sarong in navy blue to cover my shoulders from the sun.  Yes, after so many years living in the heat of the tropics.... I am a bit scared of the sun.

It was such a special vacation.... and one we really needed !  Ok I am done justifying it now...

I hope you guys don't also suffer from "vacation guilt".

One love x