Wednesday, October 18, 2006
My life Since July until October
I haven't posted anything for a while, so I thought I would give a brief summary of the last 3 months. It might work better if you imagine this as one of those time lapse films eg "London to Brighton in 2 minutes", or a prologue in a 2 part TV drama, where a smooth voice says "Previously on (insert name of program).
Since my last post were have enjoyed/ survived the long 6 weeks holiday. My wife has a flexible hours contract so is able to take annual leave/ time owing over the summer so we do not have problems with childcare. I was able to take more time off than normal as I have reduced my hours to four days a week.
Highlights of the holiday included a trip to Southampton, where we stopped overnight at a Travel lodge and went exploring in the Hampshire area. We were a family of 4 as my son was stopping with his grandmother, so we fitted easily into a "family room". As a family of 5 we frequently find there is an assumption that families are 2 adults and 2 children and facilities/food stuffs and events price things accordingly. In hotels there is normally a pause and then a comment offering us two rooms or a fold up bed crammed in the corner. Natalie has a friend in the Southampton area so he came along with us.
We also went to Stowemarket to see my brother and his partner. We left after work, on the day that the major route to East Anglia from the Midlands had a major hold up and 30 miles of stationary traffic around Cambridge. We ended up driving to Luton and going on a detour from there... We arrived late, tired and hungry. My brothers partner produced a fantastic supper within minutes and a great cooked breakfast the next day. I can only compare it to the fantastic feasts described by Enid Blyton in the famous five books, where they call at a farmhouse and leave with a hamper full of stuff from the farmers wife (always without paying I seem to remember)
We went to France as usual for our main summer holiday. We spent nearly two weeks driving down to the Dordogne via Normandy and the Loire valley. We stopped for 4 days in Normandy, an night in the Loire, and then the rest of the time in caravan in the Dordogne.
My wife does the majority of the driving (as she is a terrible passenger) which leaves yours truly doing the navigating. This normally involves me sitting in the front seat, surrounded by pieces of paper and a map, trying to work out what "toutes directions" means and being shouted at. There is a scene in a film called the Incredibles which features a family of superheroes. Towards the end of the film Mr and Mrs Incredible have to drive into the city center to save the day, and they end up having an argument about which is the best way to get there. At this point in the film my children all started giggling and pointing saying "that's just like mom and dad!"
This year to try and avoid this we invested in a satellite navigation system and paid extra for the detailed map of France which I tried to install at the last minute. This was a mistake as the instillation software defaulted to using the drive with the biggest amount of space and installed the maps onto my portable hard drive at home. The sat nav had basic maps of France built in, so we could navigate between major towns and cities. It certainly helped except when we were directed onto a motorway that was in the process of being built. The unit then sulked for 5 miles, telling us repeatedly to turn around and go back in a school teacher sort of voice. Great I thought, another bossy woman in the car.....
My wife has been wanting to go the Dordougne for over 20 years, to explore the prehistoric painted caves of the region. They feature in the Clan of the Cave Bear series by Jean M Auel, and are linked to the religion and beliefs of the people of the books. So we spent 2 days going around painted caves, going to Lascaux and to Font de Gaume as well as exploring the region and relaxing around the pool. A relaxing and almost stress free holiday, apart from a 9 hour drive on the last but one day!
So it was home for school and work. I got home to discover that I was expected at work on the Monday. However, I was in France and not home until Tuesday morning so there was a lot of apologising to do oops!!
Since my last post were have enjoyed/ survived the long 6 weeks holiday. My wife has a flexible hours contract so is able to take annual leave/ time owing over the summer so we do not have problems with childcare. I was able to take more time off than normal as I have reduced my hours to four days a week.
Highlights of the holiday included a trip to Southampton, where we stopped overnight at a Travel lodge and went exploring in the Hampshire area. We were a family of 4 as my son was stopping with his grandmother, so we fitted easily into a "family room". As a family of 5 we frequently find there is an assumption that families are 2 adults and 2 children and facilities/food stuffs and events price things accordingly. In hotels there is normally a pause and then a comment offering us two rooms or a fold up bed crammed in the corner. Natalie has a friend in the Southampton area so he came along with us.
We also went to Stowemarket to see my brother and his partner. We left after work, on the day that the major route to East Anglia from the Midlands had a major hold up and 30 miles of stationary traffic around Cambridge. We ended up driving to Luton and going on a detour from there... We arrived late, tired and hungry. My brothers partner produced a fantastic supper within minutes and a great cooked breakfast the next day. I can only compare it to the fantastic feasts described by Enid Blyton in the famous five books, where they call at a farmhouse and leave with a hamper full of stuff from the farmers wife (always without paying I seem to remember)
We went to France as usual for our main summer holiday. We spent nearly two weeks driving down to the Dordogne via Normandy and the Loire valley. We stopped for 4 days in Normandy, an night in the Loire, and then the rest of the time in caravan in the Dordogne.
My wife does the majority of the driving (as she is a terrible passenger) which leaves yours truly doing the navigating. This normally involves me sitting in the front seat, surrounded by pieces of paper and a map, trying to work out what "toutes directions" means and being shouted at. There is a scene in a film called the Incredibles which features a family of superheroes. Towards the end of the film Mr and Mrs Incredible have to drive into the city center to save the day, and they end up having an argument about which is the best way to get there. At this point in the film my children all started giggling and pointing saying "that's just like mom and dad!"
This year to try and avoid this we invested in a satellite navigation system and paid extra for the detailed map of France which I tried to install at the last minute. This was a mistake as the instillation software defaulted to using the drive with the biggest amount of space and installed the maps onto my portable hard drive at home. The sat nav had basic maps of France built in, so we could navigate between major towns and cities. It certainly helped except when we were directed onto a motorway that was in the process of being built. The unit then sulked for 5 miles, telling us repeatedly to turn around and go back in a school teacher sort of voice. Great I thought, another bossy woman in the car.....
My wife has been wanting to go the Dordougne for over 20 years, to explore the prehistoric painted caves of the region. They feature in the Clan of the Cave Bear series by Jean M Auel, and are linked to the religion and beliefs of the people of the books. So we spent 2 days going around painted caves, going to Lascaux and to Font de Gaume as well as exploring the region and relaxing around the pool. A relaxing and almost stress free holiday, apart from a 9 hour drive on the last but one day!
So it was home for school and work. I got home to discover that I was expected at work on the Monday. However, I was in France and not home until Tuesday morning so there was a lot of apologising to do oops!!
Labels: anxiety, family. live music, holidays
# posted by Mark @ 2:34 AM 
