The anything and everything to note when going to a beach trip list. Objective: To wash away the anxieties of consecutive hell weeks gone and expected to come.

Do:
Have a good bunch of old friends. Relive the college years. Reveal things previously unknown. The most entertaining bits surface either during the absentminded gulfing down of delicious food or at the dizzying heights of drunkenness.
Lie down on the sand with a good book. I am sorry to disappoint most of you, I have not yet finished the book. The Name of the Rose is still bookmarked, somewhere in the middle. I fell asleep on the beach. The cool breeze mixed with the sound of the waves was intoxicating.
Get a massage by the beach. The smell of milk lotion. A dimly lit cabana. Minus the annoying kid running around screaming for his mom, the moment was perfect.
Enjoy the water. The corals. And the fishies. Actually, they were big fishies. And Chips had such a grand time swimming after them with his fins - that (ahem) I gave him for his birthday.
Drink! What is a beach trip without alcohol? Our cabana was a virtual bar. A cooler of beer on the side, with Vodka, Gin and Lime, Bailey's.
Have a card game to spice up rounds of Vodka. You will need a deck of cards, a glass (preferably a shot glass) and two bottles of Vodka. The two bottles will be consumed in less the fifteen minutes. Fan out the deck of cards from which each person will pick a card. If red, you either drink a shot or take a consequence. If black, nothing happens. If you get an ace, you pick the person who will drink the shot.

Don't:
Forget a first aid kit. With the needed disinfectants, paracetamols, antacids, and pain killers. You really, really never know when you will need them.
Take the power of pointed corals for granted. They are beautiful. They are lovely gifts of nature. But they are jagged and armed to defend themselves. And so you, clad in either board shorts and bikinis, will have no defense but your skin (which trust me will succumb all too easily). When the tide is low and the waves are crashing... oh the pain and the agony... of swimming in salt water with scrapes & gashes.
Think that the next time, you'll pick a black card. In reference to the game above. I of course, had way to much to drink in way too short a time. A very, very uncomfortable experience. The bad thing is... I fell asleep! So during the wee hours of the morning, I experienced what it was like to be bulimic.
Leave your sunglasses on when you're lying on the beach. The victim of which was Chips' officemate, who now walks around as if cheek tint and eyeshadow were applied. This person is a guy by the way.

We had fun. And I am now on pain killers.

On another note, the reklamadora has something else to share on this beach trip.