Category Archives: Holidays

Three and a half days

Family, Holidays, , ,

So something a bit weird is happening on Friday afternoon. In fact, a lot weird. At around 3pm the Husband and I will be leaving for three and a half days away, without the kids. Three and a half days – we haven’t spent that long together since my biggest boy was born nine years ago!

We’ve only ever done the 24 hours away thing since having kids. And we all know how that goes. If you haven’t had kids yet, here is a handy guide:

1.Guiltily beg childcare – this gets more difficult the more of the little outers you spawn.

2.Get all excited at the thought of sleep, and then realise that the Husband is getting all excited at the thought of something else entirely. Ooops.

3.Arrive somewhere. Have a beer to relax.

4.At some point between the third and fourth beer, decide that now would be a REALLY good time to have a chat rant about all the things he’s done in the last 6 months that have got on my nerves.

5.Proceed towards full blown domestic.

6.Eat meal in stony silence.

7.Possible truce for, er, something else entirely, depending on how stony the silence was and amount of alcohol consumed.

8.Wake up feeling crap, pack up, go home and tell everyone how wonderful it was to spend some time together.

Sound familiar? Yep, thought so….

So, back to this weekend. It’s an unexpected treat for me – we had been invited to a surprise celebration with some special friends, but for various reasons including the time away from the kids, the distance and the cost we had decided that the Husband would go alone, and had booked his flights accordingly….then a couple of weeks later I received this lovely message, which certainly cheered up a dull morning in work!

photo

 

What lovely friends!

But, reader, three and a half days? We are used to squeezing any conversations into approximately three and a half minutes twice a day – once as I leave for work, and once in the window of time between them all falling asleep and me conking out too. What the WHAT are we going to talk about for three and a half days?  I did mention this to the Husband, who merely raised his eyes and said drily ‘I’m sure you won’t have a problem filling the silence, sweetheart’ – not sure what he means by that exactly…

But I know he is a bit nervous too –  not least because he couldn’t hide his look of relief when I messed up the online check in and we ended up in separate rows. I could practically see him doing the maths – two hours there, two hours back, well that makes a bit of a dent in it…sadly for him, Easyjet came good and reallocated the seats, ha!

This weekend feels like even more of a big thing because this time last year, we weren’t even managing the above mentioned three and a half minute conversations in a civil fashion. It was difficult to see back then how we would ever be able to move forward as a couple, and it did seem for a while as if we had reached the point of no return. But return we did, and I am glad, and I feel like going away together this weekend will be a celebration of that, especially as we are returning to the Czech Republic, one of the first places we visited together, and where we were married….awww shucks!

Three and a half days! Reader, I shall report back!

Three and a half days
Our first visit to Prague. Possibly pissed.

A Day Out in Barrybados

Countrykids, Holidays, LearnerMother, Wales
Barrybados
You can see why we call it Barrrybados!

So yesterday school was closed for the strike, giving the kids and me a bonus day off. At their request we’d planned for a loom-band-and-lego-fest, and the playroom floor had even been cleared of the usual clutter all ready to go.

This all changed when my little girl came twirling up to be in her new (to her) teeshirt. ‘Look Mum! It says Beach Break! That’s what we should do today – go to the beach! Let’s all go to Barry Island for the day!’

Naturally my first thought was ‘The beach? On my own with the three of them? That’s bound to be a disaster’. Followed by ‘Beach? That means I’ll have to drive. And I’m still being a wimp about that. No way, Jose’.

So I mumbled something about we’d go to the beach another time, when I’d had a chance to get things organised. Only to be met with the rejoinder ‘MUM! What do we need to organise! It’s the BEACH! And the sun is shining! And we have a day off! And we’ll be really good, promise!’

So that’s how we came to be at the bus stop, with an enormous Clas Ohlson bag filled with a blanket, towels, swimmers, sun cream, balls, hats, drinks, buckets, spades and fishing nets. There’s something about kids on a trip to the beach that seems to make everyone smile – even the bus driver didn’t grumble when he had to stop the bus and wrestle one of our fishing nets out of the door mechanism because it had slipped out of the luggage space. Whoops!

That set the tone for the day really. The kids were brilliant on the bus and the train to Barry Island (I’d forgotten that this is part of the adventure for them) and we all had such a lovely day together. It was a proper beach day, with rock pooling, football, digging to Australia, Crazy Golf (more like Crazy Hockey the way we played, but still!), a fish and chip lunch and of course an ice cream at Marco’s.

Barrybados
Crazy Hockey
BarryBados
Digging to Australia
Barrybados
Looking for Pirates

We all had such a wonderful day together, and I learnt a couple of lessons – firstly that though I haven’t really noticed it happening, everything is easier! Even last year I wouldn’t have taken the three of them to a crowded beach on my own – I just wouldn’t have felt that I could manage them all safely. And secondly, that everything does not have to be organised to the nth degree – sometimes the best days are completely random and *twitches slightly* not planned at all!

I’m linking up for the first time in far too long with the brilliant Country Kids at Coombe Mill – why not go and check out some more adventures in the great outdoors, planned and unplanned!
Country Kids from Coombe Mill Family Farm Holidays Cornwall

Beach Buddies in Northern Ireland

Friendship, Holidays, , , ,

It seemed such a long time ago that my chum Tanya from BeachLifeEtc and I booked flights to see our lovely friend Jo in Northern Ireland, that I was almost surprised when last Friday came upon us and it was actually time to head off to the airport.  After various showdowns about the fact that I was a) taking (MY) iPad and b) not taking any children, Tanya picked me up at 3.30pm and off we went!

I think I had mentioned to poor Tan that I’m not a great flyer, and we’ve known each other for nearly 15 years (FIFTEEN? How did THAT happen) so she is aware of my tendency to get hyperactive and flappy when I’m nervous. But even so, I think she was taken aback by just how hyperactive and flappy I managed to become as the time for takeoff came closer. I might even have had a dirty look from the cabin crew for swearing slightly  during the safety briefing, in response to Tan whispering to me that the scraping noise I could hear outside was ‘just them tightening the wings up, sweetie’. Ooops.

But once we were up there things weren’t too bad, except for the odd minor panic attack whenever the plane turned (why does it have to do that? Can’t all runways everywhere be giant turning circles so the flipping things can just take off in the right direction and fly in a straight line?) and then in no time we were coming down, getting off the plane, and jumping in the car with Jo to head off to Magilligan Point, where there was everything we needed – cottage, pub and beach, all within 30 seconds walk. Perfect!

What with catching up on all the gossip, we didn’t make it to bed until well after midnight – not that it mattered as none of us woke up until about half past nine – bliss, bliss bliss! After a frankly amazing breakfast prepared by Jo involving pistachios, couscous, raspberries, oranges and natural yoghurt, we headed out go for a bracing walk around the National Trust property of Downhill Demesne where in true Muppet form I managed to fall over and get half caked in mud…

We reached Mussenden Temple without further muppetry, and my goodness I can see why it’s reputed to be one of the most photographed spots in Northern Ireland. The temple was originally built as a reading room but is now used as a venue for weddings amongst other things, though on wet and muddy days you’d probably need to travel in a 4 x 4 rather than a vintage motor.

We then headed over to explore the now ruined Downhill House for some more exploring – and star jumps and selfies!

After all this fresh air, we headed home for some lunch before going for a long and lovely beach walk along Magilligan Point, ending up back in the pub where we had a cheeky Guinness (or two) to set us up for our evening meal…

I cannot tell you how lovely and long the day seemed. You know how time races when you have kids, because you’re always running for the next pickup, planning the next meal, preventing the next world war? Well, we didn’t have to do any of those things, having left our various husbands and kids elsewhere, and I think I speak for all three of us when I say that this gave us a real sense of headspace.

Unfortunately the time going slowly bit did not last into the next day! Sunday seemed to whizz by all too quickly, though we did manage to get a short and freezing walk up a mountain, a coffee and a cake and some bookshop browsing in Coleraine (though the world’s biggest shoe shop wasn’t open, sob) and of course LOADS more chat before it was time to get on the plane back to Bristol…and this time I managed not to swear during the flight safety briefing. Da iawn fi!

A MAHOOSIVE thank you to Jo for having us, and Tan for holding my hand on the flight, and to both of you lovely ladies for putting up with my general muppetness for the last fifteen years….let’s do it again soon, yeah? x x

Since I’ve had a break, I’m DEFINITELY being much less grumpy at home. And that’s good, right? Well guess what – you too can help prevent my kids from phoning Childline by helping me get another grownup night away – this time at a swanky dinner! All you have to do is click this lovely picture and nominate me for whatever takes your fancy. There’s no biggest muppet award but there is a ‘Best New Blog’ category…THANKYOU!

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