WINTER WONDERLAND

by Belinda Jones

  And then Sibérie gives a little bark, prompting Jacques to reach up and unzip a large panel in the top of the tent.

  ‘We have a skylight!’ I marvel.

  ‘The stars are so bright out here – no electricity for miles.’

  So this is why – we’ve come to lie beneath the stars. That’s nice. Not quite sure we needed a siren alert but still …

  And then the light show begins. Just a vapour at first. A mere mist of luminescent green, a wand-like streak across the sky.

  My heart starts to tremble. Is this … ? Could this be … ?

  I watch as the green infuses with a ghostly white, shape-shifting and moving like sands blowing across the blackness.

  ‘Jacques,’ I grope for his arm as the vista glows ultraviolet. ‘Am I seeing what I think I’m seeing?’

  He nods.

  ‘Say it!’

  ‘Krista, for your viewing pleasure, allow me to present, the aurora borealis … ’

  I flash back to the imitation light show I saw with Mal from the hotel window. But this is so much better. This is real …

  And Jacques is real. And I’m really here with him right now watching nature’s ethereal fireworks flare across the sky!

  When I turn to face him, he is already looking at me, gazing so fondly, so open-heartedly …

  His lashes lower, his mouth meets mine …

  And when he kisses me I feel as if my heart has taken flight, swirling now amid those mystical swathes of silk. I can almost see Sebastien and Julie floating up there, moving with the drift and sway.

  ‘This is heavenly,’ I whisper as we pause for breath. And then I burrow into Jacques’ warm neck. ‘I can’t believe this is my last night!’

  ‘It’s not our last. It’s our first,’ he says, gently lifting my face to meet his. ‘This is where we begin … ’

  THE END

  KRISTA’S TOP 10 TRAVEL DOs & DON’Ts

  DO

  1. Start with the lightest possible suitcase. Such advancements have been made in this area it is well worth considering retiring your old back-buckler in favour of the new ultra-lites, allowing you to pack those extra pair of wedges you know you’ll probably only wear once but will totally make the outfit.

  I still take my black patent glam-case on roadtrips and weekends away, but it’s long-haul flight days are over. Not least because the airlines are getting stingier with their allowances. Which brings me to …

  2. Double-check your baggage allowance online (airlines vary greatly) and weigh your suitcase before you leave home. Obvious but not to be ignored! I’m all for packing as much as you want (see DO NOT worry about ‘packing light’), but I am morally opposed to paying airlines’ excessive fees for being a pound or two overweight. There’s nothing worse than feeling ripped off before you’ve even left the country.

  3. Try and match each outfit you pack to a scenario on your vacation. It’s all too easy to load in all your favourite items without stopping to ask, ‘Will I really need a red linen jacket (with polyester lining) in Bali?’ Think back to what you wore over and over the last time you went on a similar trip (be it beach or city) and pack those items first, only topping-off with the more questionable choices. (Better yet, leave a gap for on-location purchases.)

  4. Bring a pashmina or cosy cashmere scarf/cardi combo for the flight. You may be jetting off to hundred-degree humidity but chances are you’ll get Hôtel de Glace-style frozen on the plane and it’s far harder to drift off to sleep when you are hunched and shivering. And you can’t even count on being offered a static-electricity-conducting airline blanket any more.

  5. Watch what you spend at the airport. What with the obligatory farewell fry-up, the glittering bracelets and sarongs at Accessorise and the lure of Duty Free, it’s easy to drop £100 while you are milling around waiting for your gate to be announced. You may think that ‘travel exclusive’ set of lipglosses looks so pretty lined up together, but really, would you wear all five shades?

  6. Research your destination way ahead of time. I really believe that guidebooks should be read weeks in advance of your trip as opposed to at the breakfast table before you head out on your first day. Not only does this extend the life of your holiday (anticipation is half the pleasure!), but you will also know that the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art in NYC (and virtually every other museum around the world) is closed on a Monday. Same goes for Broadway shows. More research, less regret!

  7. Book any show tickets as far in advance as possible. Especially if you are going for the cheaper seats. Rows M–Z may be the same price band but wouldn’t you rather be M as opposed to 13 rows back in Z because that’s all that’s available last-minute? That said, it’s always worth checking for returns on the day itself. There’s never been a Sold Out show I haven’t got into.

  8. Try the lingo. With the possible exception of France, your butchering of the native language will only endear you to the locals. (It’s also fun to get so into the habit of saying, ‘Gracias!’ that you say it to your local newsagent when you get home.)

  9. Invest in noise-cancelling headphones. This may seem like a luxury item but the difference they will make to your flight is worth its weight in gold. The leather padding is so soft and snug around your ears, you will immediately get a sense of pampered well-being, but more importantly you can hear every word of the movie, as opposed to only catching the gist. (Which in turn makes the time pass quicker because you are far more absorbed.) You can tune out Chatty Cathy neighbours, crying babies and the feeling that you are travelling in Economy – this may be the most affordable upgrade on the market!

  10. Take a carry-on case with wheels. It’s just not worth the indentations in your shoulders to lug a carry-on bag with a strap, especially if you’re taking a laptop. It may not seem that heavy when you give it a test-jiggle at home, but once you’ve walked the ten miles to the gate and loaded up on magazines and water bottles and a family-size pack of wine gums, you’ll start to feel the burden. Better to be free-wheeling and channel your inner Pan-Am hostess as you walk.

  DO NOT

  1. Forget to boost your immune system prior to travelling. Get into the habit of having daily Vitamin C and echinacea tea a good month before your trip, and with any luck the on-plane lurgies will attack the weaker specimens, leaving your health intact.

  2. Worry about ‘packing light’. There seems to be some ridiculous competitiveness over who can have the smallest suitcase, as if it somehow makes you a better person, and anyone with a bumper load is shamed into feeling somehow ‘greedy’ or indulgent. Do you really want to be wearing the same outfit in every holiday snap? Besides, for some of us, being on holiday is our only real chance to dress up and play with accessories. I say, go for it!

  3. Wear big boots to the airport. Aside from being a palaver to remove as you pass through security, they will take up too much room when you want to kick them off during your flight. If there’s no getting around it (say you’re flying to Quebec and your suitcase is already chockablock), take an extra plastic bag to put them in once you have boarded and store them in the overhead locker for the duration.

  4. Pick an airplane seat close to the toilets. It may initially seem a ‘convenience’, but this will be the point of the most coming and going (disturbing your sleep) and you always risk basking in some foul odour. Equally, a window seat is not always the most desirable, unless you’re a sleeper. If you’re a fidget and hate to feel hemmed in, go for the aisle. Even if you begrudge getting up to let out the other passenger/s, the movement will be good for your circulation.

  5. Have ice with your drink on the flight. Multiple studies have shown airplane ice contains way too much nasty bacteria. Just say no! (And have a nice glass of red wine.)

  6. Use your mobile phone abroad without checking all the charges first, especially the data roaming ones, or you could end up spending more than the cost of your holiday on one lousy Internet search. Best to switch to wifi and stay there.

  7. Hesitate to
talk to the locals. Even if you are not fluent in their language, even if you have to mime out most of the words, even if all you can do is share a drink or dance together, these are the interactions that will make your trip.

  8. Expect things to go perfectly. Every new place with its native quirks and customs has a new way to throw you off your game. Even tried-and-tested destinations can have power-outages or insane new ‘resort fees’ to rack up your bill. But letting a few niggles (however outrageously unjust) ruin your whole trip only serves the Gods of Vexation & Regret. Besides, it’s often the ‘disasters’ that make for your funniest dinner stories. You just might have to practise the phrase ‘It’s only money’ a few times before it ceases to stick in your throat. Alternatively just remind yourself, ‘It could be worse, I could be at work.’

  9. Miss out on the local cuisine. Worst-case scenario you spit it into your napkin. Best-case scenario, your tastebuds get to feel like they are on holiday too, revelling in a host of new flavours. Really, just because it doesn’t look like anything you’ve ever encountered before doesn’t mean it won’t be delicious! I could never stand the smell of Indian food until I took my first bite and now I can’t get enough of it. (If only I’d known peshwari naan tastes like a pastry sooner!)

  10. Be afraid to travel alone. Some of the most rewarding experiences will come when you leave your home alter ego behind, and the best way to do that is not to travel with anyone reminding you of who you normally are and how you normally behave. Given carte blanche to be whoever you want to be, who knows what incredible adventures you will have!

  KRISTA’S BEST OF THE WORLD

  Best beach-life: Bronte Beach (just twenty miles north of Sydney) has an amazing fifty-metre rock pool built into the ocean with surf crashing over the side and the occasional fish swimming alongside you!

  There are so many great sandy shores around the world where you can splay and suntan, but in terms of great add-ons like barbecues and surfer dudes, Australia is in a league of its sunny, friendly, energetic own.

  Best-presented food: The French may create clever abstract art with their nouveau cuisine, but for sheer, intricate beauty you can’t beat Thailand. Even a humble carrot becomes a blossoming rose. And you should see what they can do with a watermelon …

  Best avoided: the sex shows of Bangkok. You hear so much about those native girls expelling ping-pong balls, you want to see the phenomenon for yourself. But the fact is, it’s just yukky and sad. I don’t know if it was because my friend and I left mid-performance or under-tipped, but the girl on stage turned and aimed her ping-pong ball at me as we were heading for the door, making a direct hit on my shoulder. The good news is that I was wearing a jacket. The bad news is that it was suede. Try explaining that to your local dry-cleaner …

  Best place to have the time of your life: the Mountain Lake Hotel in Virginia, USA, is the real-deal Kellerman’s, as featured in Dirty Dancing. From the minute you pull up at the resort, it feels like you are stepping into the movie set: everywhere you look you’re reminded of another scene – the gazebo dance class, the staff cabins, that moving lakeside moment with Baby and her dad – so many photo opps! The hotel has plenty of memorabilia and souvenirs in the gift shop and you can even attend special Dirty Dancing themed weekends from May to November. Go swivel like Swayze!

  Best place to stroke a cheetah: When I visited South Africa a few years back, Cheetah Outreach was housed at the gorgeous Spier wine estate in Stellenbosch, but it has relocated to Somerset West, just half an hour from Cape Town city centre. Just don’t wear dangly earrings or you may experience a ‘playful’ swipe!

  Best sauna: it has to be Finland. Especially since they encourage you to drink chilled Kulta beer (brewed by women in the Arctic circle) and splash some of it on the hot coals to diffuse a woodsy-malty scent while you sit and sweat.

  Best hotel suite: Jade Mountain Resort in Saint Lucia. An entire ocean-view wall is missing, offering you unobstructed panoramas of the green-velvet-clad Piton mountains and a gentle sea breeze as you swim in the suite’s infinity pool. Your sanctuary also offers a lounge area, a full-size dining table for your fit-for-a-movie-star room-service breakfast and an open-air shower akin to bathing in a waterfall. Even if you stay only one night, the memory will last all eternity – the ultimate Caribbean honeymoon destination.

  Best way to time-travel: get lost in Venice. Step away from St Mark’s Square and weave around the backstreets of the Cannaregio district and you will find it’s just you, the dreamy canals and ancient palazzos whispering secrets from the past …

  Best weight-loss programme: a dance holiday in Havana, Cuba. Salsa classes in the morning, exploring the ‘decaying splendour’ of the city in the afternoon, dancing al fresco till sunrise, coupled with high humidity and food you’d rather skip, means your waist will whittle in a week. Expect your heart to expand, though: Cuban joy is contagious.

  Best ‘originated here’ cocktail: the Singapore Sling as served at the historic Raffles Hotel Long Bar in, you guessed it, Singapore! (The well-to-do island located between Malaysia and Indonesia, where chewing gum is banned and tailors abound.)

  Best riverboat cruise: Amsterdam. Touring the city canals and gazing up at the higgledy-piggledy merchants’ houses is one of the most relaxing and pleasurable ways to spend your day. The Dutch people are especially wonderful (so smart and easy-going) and they too offer a twist on how to eat your chips – with a big dollop of mayonnaise! (Like poutine, it tastes better than it sounds.)

  Best port café: Dubrovnik. Sip a bijela kava (latte) in one of the many pavement cafes while enjoying those ruggedly-rumbly Croatian accents in surround-sound before cooling off in the jewel-blue Adriatic.

  Best place to blend in if you have a mullet: Utah. You can also wear a rainbow tie-dyed T-shirt, oil-slick sunglasses and a trucker cap. But you don’t have to wear any of those things (except maybe the trucker cap) to retrace Thelma & Louise’s tyre-tracks around the red rocky desert of Canyonlands National Park. This really is the ultimate road-trip country.

  Best Winter Carnival: Quebec. Naturellement!

  Best cup of tea: Wherever Laurie is brewing up. I’m going to miss you, cupcake …

  OTHER BOOKS BY BELINDA JONES

  DIVAS LAS VEGAS

  Jamie and Izzy, friends for ever, have a dream: a spangly double wedding in Las Vegas. At the age of twenty-seven they decide they've had enough crap boyfriends, they're now ready for crap husbands - all they have to do is find them. And where better than Las Vegas itself, where the air is 70% oxygen and 30% confetti?

  But as they abandon their increasingly complicated home lives for the eye-popping brilliance of Las Vegas, their groom-grabbing plan starts to look less than foolproof. And those niggling problems they thought they'd left behind - like Izzy's fiancé and the alarming reappearance of Jamie's first love - just won't go away...

  I LOVE CAPRI

  Kim Rees became a translator for the glamorous jet-set lifestyle. So, five years later, how is it that she's ended up sitting in a basement apartment translating German computer games in her PJs? Fortunately her mother has a plan to extract her from her marshmallowy rut: a trip to the magical isle of Capri.

  At first Kim refuses to wake up and smell the bougainvillea, but as she starts to succumb to the delights of fresh peach bellinis on the terrace and millionaire suitors, she's surprised to realise she's changing. And when she meets a man who's tiramisu personified, she finds herself falling in love. But how far will she go to win her Romeo?

  THE CALIFORNIA CLUB

  When Lara Richards jets off to sunny California, the last thing she's expecting is to find her old friend Helen transformed from a clipboard-clasping frump into a shimmering surf goddess. The secret of her blissful new life? The mysterious California Club.

  So the offer of guest membership - one wish, guaranteed to come true by the end of their stay - is one Lara and her friends can't resist. Could this be Lara's chance to win her best friend Elliot's heart aft
er ten years of longing? Or does the fact that he's travelling with his brand new fiancée mean that Lara will have to come up with a new dream...?

  THE PARADISE ROOM

  When Amber Pepper's jeweller boyfriend Hugh asks her to join him on a business trip to the paradise islands of Tahiti she's not keen - Amber loves big jumpers and rain. She'd rather be pedalling through puddles back home in Oxford than lolling in the gel-blue waters of the South Pacific. However, the prospect of sipping Mai Tais with her long-lost friend Felicity is incentive enough to coax her on the twenty-hour flight.

  Within hours of touching down on coral sands the girls venture into a seductive new world of mesmerising music, exotic black pearls and sexy strangers. And for the first time Amber falls head over flip-flops in lust, only to receive an unexpected marriage proposal.

  Will she opt for a barefoot beach wedding or cast caution - and her coconut bra - to the wind? No easy decision for a drizzle-loving gal when it's ninety degrees in the shade...

  CAFÉ TROPICANA

  Latte-lover Ava Langston knows exactly what she wants: her very own café in a vintage arcade and a life free of complicated relationships. But her plans go awry when her long-distance dad calls insisting she hop on the next plane to Costa Rica to meet his brand new wife.

  Ava has no intention of jetting to Latin America to acquire a stepmother - until, that is, her father offers her head honcho status at a beachfront café. The lure of frothing cappuccinos in a land where the coffee beans grow proves irresistible. But she hasn't planned on Santiago, her sexy-yet-stubborn business rival, or rugged Ryan whose idea of romance is zip-lining through the rainforest at 6am. Both men give her butterflies but only one will capture her heart...

  THE LOVE ACADEMY

  Do you have enough romance in your life?

  Journalist Kirsty Bailey would have to answer no. She has the essential starter kit - a boyfriend - but somehow Joe seems to have skipped the vows of for better/for worse and gone straight to for granted.