

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