I love chatting to strangers! Fearne’s being spontaneous and sleeping better on holiday

0:00Fearne Cotton: Hi everyone, it's me, Fearne Cotton. Welcome to Happy Place. Now you might remember last summer we launched a gorgeous mini-series on the Happy Place feed. It is called The Happy Place Guide to Holidays, brought to you by British Airways Holidays. And it's all about taking our holidays more seriously. I love a holiday and I love taking it seriously. Now last year we had an exceptional line-up of guests. We had Richard E Grant getting very vehemently passionate about food and restaurants in other countries. That was a really delicious one. We talked to Tess Daly all about being phone-free when away so she can properly chill out.

0:38Also Clara Ampho talked about learning new skills when she's away, which is a lovely way to learn new things without any pressure whatsoever. Just having a lovely time. and the brilliant Sarah Cox. Well, me and Sarah, two bookworms, united chatting about our passion for reading,

0:56Fearne Cotton: especially like good beach reads. And actually a couple of the books that Sarah mentioned in that chat, I went away and read on my holiday last year and they were brilliant. One of them being a book called Butter, which you must read. It's excellent. Now, because the series did so well and we had so much positive feedback, we thought, why not do it again? So our guide to holidays is back with British Airways Holidays. We're very, very excited about it. So before we get to our lovely lineup of guests, I'm going to chat to you about holidays and also work through my likes and dislikes on holiday, as well as Team Happy Places likes and dislikes.

1:38Fearne Cotton: Right, I'm going to start with my likes. I had the most amazing trip recently. I went on holiday to Rome with British Airways holidays. Incredible. So some of my likes, I don't think my dislikes, but my likes are going to be explored from that very trip. So it was a really cool trip because we flew out there and then there was like a spa bit to the trip first. So I went to this amazing spa in a place called Fuigi and it was so chilled. I'd been sleeping so badly before that. And the peace and quiet of that place alone, let alone the amazing massage I had and the gorgeous food, allowed me to just properly relax like nervous system outwards.

2:25And I slept like an absolute log for two nights. I was so chuffed. I hadn't done that for so long. And then I went to Rome, like right in the thick of Rome, amazing hotel that had this beautiful terrace garden. And I drank the most amazing legroni I think I've ever had in my life. And sort of undid the good work of the spa, ate lots of great pasta. And just walking around Rome, I hadn't been to Rome for 20 years. And to just see the history of that place is overwhelming. Sort of get like history fatigue by the end of it. There's just so much to see and do. It's amazing. Obviously, I went to the Vatican, Sistine Chapel, all of that ticked off the list.

3:07It was just it was an unforgettable trip.

3:09Fearne Cotton: Let's start with my first like. And it's one that many of you will probably nod along to. And that is the feeling of just being a slightly different version of yourself when you're in a new place. When I'm at home, I'm always in a rush. I'm going from A to B as quickly as possible with my head down. I don't want to stop. I don't want to chat to anyone. on holiday, I am Mrs. Chilled, mooching around the streets of Rome. I was up for a chat with anyone and I got into interesting conversations with strangers that I no way would at home. So one example is I was walking past a little boutique and I love going shopping on holiday and I thought, well, that looks quite interesting.

3:51Fearne Cotton: It's not like a chain of shops. I might just pop in there. Popped in. Next thing you know, I am being stripped naked in a changing room at the back. I mean, I was stripping myself, but, and had sort of clothes thrown at me by the wonderful, passionate shopkeeper and designer of said clothing. And she's sort of dressing me up in all of these weird and wonderful outfits. Obviously I ended up buying one. And I had like a proper in-depth chat with this lady about her backstory, how she came to have her own shop in the centre of Rome, how she makes her clothes, where she gets her fabric from, because I had the time and I had the headspace to do it.

4:28And I never do that at home. I never take the time to properly stop and chat to the person who I'm buying a top from or just stopping in the street and having a chat with someone. Equally, I went to a really cool vintage shop in an area of Rome that I can't remember. And there were two elderly Italian women in there running it full of character.

4:50Fearne Cotton: and I was trying to sort of communicate with them with very bad broken Italian about a jacket that I wanted to buy that I did end up buying for my auntie and we sort of managed to have a bit of a laugh and neither of us could really speak the other other person's language but it was just such a fun lovely spontaneous moment so for me the best bits of holidays are those magical moments where you end up having a chat with someone that you don't know and you learn something about them and you walk away with a smile on your face remembering that there are very good eggs out there everywhere. So that is one of my big likes.

5:27Fearne Cotton: Teamed with the first alcoholic drink that you have on holiday. Nothing beats it. Nothing will ever taste as good as the first, let's say, Negroni on holiday in the sun. Eating dinner outside, there's another like. There's too many. I like everything about going on holiday. Let's go to Team Happy Place. So Tia, who works on our social media team, Tia says, finding unique souvenirs instead of the usual magnets and jewellery and notebooks, little keepsakes that you'll actually use that bring back memories of that holiday. I love nothing more than buying knickknacks on holiday. But like Tia says, You want them to be useful.

6:09Fearne Cotton: Again, going back to my trip to Rome, I bought something. I haven't used it yet, but I know it's going to come in handy. I bought a wax seal with my initials on. Okay. Like remember in the Tudor times when they would send a letter to somebody. I mean, you won't remember because we weren't there, but in the Tudor times, they would write a letter with a quill and then a big red wax seal on the back of an envelope sent off to the one you love, etc. I bought a wax seal. So I am going to start. I'm a big thank you notes writer. So I am going to be writing thank you notes with an Italian wax seal on the back of that envelope.

6:51Fearne Cotton: Thank you very much. And that again is a unique knickknack slash souvenir. I would never buy a wax seal in the UK. I could have Googled it and bought one on the internet. There's something about going into a shop, really getting to know what that shop's about. This particular shop was actually the best stationary shop I've ever been in in my life. It was very near the Trevi Fountain and there were sort of rows of leather-bound notepads and passport covers and beautiful handbags and wax seals. So I got one. Right, let's get one more like from Team Happy Place. Let's go with Hannah. Hannah heads up our Happy Place book club.

7:33Fearne Cotton: So it's unsurprising that Hannah has said, uninterrupted reading time. It feels so good to read a whole book in a day. There's nothing better. Now, when my kids were really tiny, I did zero reading on holiday. It was probably the part of my life where I read the least, because when you've got little kids on holiday, as you all know, if you have them, it is not relaxing and you do not sit down for a single second. Sun loungers, obsolete. You don't need them. You don't lie down. But now my kids are that bit older. The best bit for me is now when you're on the actual flight, rather than having a toddler that you're trying to put a seatbelt on and they're trying to get out the chair.

8:12It's just like absolute chaos. My kids are now just either sat on their devices or they're reading a book. Honey's probably reading Lottie Brooks. So I can sit and read a quarter of a book in one sitting, uninterrupted, no break. There is nothing better. And also, I love to read fiction when I'm away.

8:34Fearne Cotton: Because of the amount of books I need to read for Happy Place and research that needs to be done for various podcast guests, having a world I can escape to, not that I want to escape from a holiday, but just to get stuck into a really good fiction is the absolute dream and that is where it starts on that flight. The kids are okay, you're right guys, you got water, yeah, lovely, jubbly, see you in three hours and then I've got my book out. No better feeling. Let's move on to dislikes. I don't dislike that much at all about holidays but I can sometimes dislike what it brings out in me only on day one.

9:11Fearne Cotton: Day one, and my kids know this all too well, that on day one of any holiday to anywhere in the world for the first 24 hours, I am nuts. I get very anxious on the first day about all sorts of things. And also because I have had bouts of OCD over the years, anything that feels a bit out of the ordinary can just bring that to the forefront a bit. So I am very big on, you know, I'm in a new environment. I'm going to try and relax myself to get in a head space where I can go to sleep. I want to check every window that it's locked properly. I want to double lock the door of the hotel. I want to make sure that everything's turned off in the room.

9:58There's nothing electrical on checking all of the plugs.

10:00Fearne Cotton: I sort of drive everybody mad on that first day because I can't instantly switch into I'm chilled, I'm on holiday. By day two, and certainly by the evening of day two, I'm like, right, I know we're safe. I know the doors are locked. I know the windows are locked. Everything's okay. I've not left the tap on. I can sleep. I can relax. First 24 hours every time. It's not the holiday's fault. It's my fault. Let's move on to team Happy Places dislikes. Jenna, who does all of our PR for Happy Place, all of our press helps us get the word out there about projects we're doing like the Happy Place Festival and if we're doing live events or just what we're doing with the podcast.

10:41Fearne Cotton: She's the one that gets the word out there in many various ways. Jenna says packing to go home. Oh, it's the pits. Nobody wants to do it. However, it is made that bit brighter looking at the new shiny things I've bought from the holiday shops. That is a plus. But the packing to go home. It's never good. I always leave it to the last possible minute. I'm talking like 20 minutes before we need to vacate the hotel or wherever we're staying. And everything's everywhere all over the shop. Things are still wet, which is an absolute nightmare. like swimming costumes are still completely soggy and you've got to work out do I put it in a shower cap that I'm taking from the hotel bathroom to then stuff in the suitcase it's just a bleak thought and also knowing that when you get home you've got to wash all of it oh I'm putting clothes in covered in sand like food down top site it's not good it's not pretty and just knowing that your holiday has come to an end.

11:49I hate that day. I hate it. Like going back to reality. And look, I love my job. I love my life. But there is something so magical about being on holiday that coming home, you got to start setting alarms again. You got to get back in the routine. You got to juggle a million things. It's just, you know, I do get the holiday blues big time. That first day back, I'm reminiscing. I'm making little photo books to reminisce about the trip. it's a sad day sad times so jenna i am with you well i would say that team happy place definitely

12:22Fearne Cotton: know how to take their holidays very seriously indeed and if you want help taking your holidays more seriously then you know where to go british airways holidays allows you to book with a low deposit and pay off your holiday in flexible installments they offer a 24-hour holiday helpline and all holidays include a generous baggage allowance per person what's more all british Airways holidays are at all protected so they have got you well and truly covered. I want to say a massive thank you to British Airways holidays for supporting this podcast and as always the biggest thanks to you. Go spread your wings you gorgeous lot.