A Place in the Sun presenter, Laura Hamilton, and Lisa are having a coffee in the ‘new normal’ in Spain, masks at the ready, with a lively conversation about property abroad, bargain cave houses, lack of tourists in Spain, Greek idylls, making tea for Dermot O’Leary, getting stuck in Sri Lanka, nerve-wracking Egyptian taxi rides, galloping around the Pyramids in Cairo, skiing after C sections, becoming a postmistress, running the local coffee shop and the surprise revelation about who her father is! There’s a clue, in the title.

On this episode we cover:

The new series of A Place in the Sun

What it’s like in Spain with fewer tourists around

Fuengirola being a Spanish working town

Laura being on a flight to Spain when the quarantine was announced

Lockdown having been mentally very tough

People wanting to take holidays

Lisa and Laura on Channel 5 News together

Takes a brave person to go to a country AGAINST Foreign Office says don’t go

Still having access to healthcare with EHIC card

People on social media judging each other

400,000 Brits having homes in Spain

Property currently being very cheap in Spain

A Place in the Sun viewers booming in lockdown

People wanting escapism

Camelot say the number one wish is for a holiday home

Guests on A Place in the Sun being ordinary working people

£29,000 cave houses available

Laura having stolen Lisa’s dream job

Laura’s Dad being Uncle Bulgaria in the Wombles!!!

Starting off at Channel 4 making tea for Dermot O’Leary

Buying her first property age 19

Being made redundant

Always turning a negative into a positive 

Getting her break as a children’s TV presenter age 21

Taking part in Dancing on Ice being a game changer

Having bought and renovated 8 houses helping to get her the big gig

The coffee shop, restaurant and deli she owns in Purley

Moving a good half an hour to be with her husband

Turning the café into the village shop during lockdown

Working really hard on set rather than being on holiday

Travel being so important for kids

Laura’s entrepreneurial spirit meaning she’s a workaholic

Lisa always thinking of opening shops or cafes (despite burning a pan of water)

Becoming a postmistress, but struggling to keep the Post Office going

Her insurance salesperson husband sometimes thinking she’s mad

Skiing for The Jump just 3 weeks after an emergency caesarean

Timeshare holidays in Tenerife

The ‘shame’ of caravan holidays age 13

Slate mines in Wales!

A round the world ticket in her early 20s

Leaving a French campsite every day in full make-up to film

Laura gets star-spotted whilst we’re sitting there

A nerve-racking experience at the Egyptian border

Having dinner with the taxi drivers family in Cairo

(weirdly, Lisa had a very similar experience)

Galloping on horseback around the pyramids

Getting stuck in Sri Lanka because of the Icelandic ash cloud

Flying to Maldives instead

The coffin-like ‘spa treatment’ full of cockroaches

Wanting to instil a sense of adventure in her children

How music on travel can always take you back in tome

Leo Sayer’s Thunder In My Heart taking her back to a road trip in a Mini through the Australian outback