30 March 2015

Never the Twain Shall Meet.

Angelic.
The boys behaved extraordinarily well the other morning.  And that evening.  They were positively angelic.

That's both of them.  On the same day.  So, I'm wondering whether it will happen again in my lifetime, obviously.

'But what brought this on?'  I hear you ask.  Yes, I do.  I can see you're aghast, thinking 'How does she do it?'

We all know when you have two (or more) children that one will be playing up when the other isn't and they will take in turns, like they've made a secret plan to shred your nerves.  The one who listens in the morning will have done his stint and revert to ignoring you later in the day, while the sibling who refused to get dressed couldn't be sweeter within a few hours.  He'll sit saintly drawing, do as he's asked the first time you suggest something and want the light turned out after just the one book.  *Faints.*  

No. Never the twain shall meet.  Normally.  And there isn't any secret answer - only that they both wanted to watch a particular film.

But, silly me, lulled into a stupid false sense of security, I did something really rather rash and booked a trip to France.

It was supposed to be easy - nipping over from Newhaven (near us) to Dieppe -  a small port that I've already visited a couple of times, but the children have never been.  It's only tiny and it would be easy to show them around.  Simples, I thought.  A cinch.  What fun!

But it didn't work out like that.

I took the advice we'd been given at a Travel Blogging session at the Britmums Live conference, which was to decide where we want to go, then ring the right people and ask if there are any preferential press rates.  As long as we're prepared to write about our trips, which bloggers will usually do naturally and for free, it can be possible to get a discount of some kind.

They didn't have that particualr route available, but could offer me Dover to Dunkirk instead.  What the hell? I figured.  Let's go for it.   Dover's just along the coast.  Never been to either place.  What fun still!

Only now, here I am, printting off maps for places I don't know, visiting my lovely friend Tania en route, whose place we've never been to before either, booking a Hotel in Dover and another in France, both requiring more directions and maps and even driving on the right hand side of the road in one case, of course.  Not that I've ever minded driving on the other side before, but it's always been in a car designed to do that, not in my very own trusty Ford with the steering wheel in the opposite position to where it should be.

I have a feeling I'd much rather keep banging my left hand on the driver's door and just copy the person in front than be doing what we're all booked up to do. (Don't we all do that when we hire a car abroad - keep going to change gear where we're used to our gearstick being?!).

My fretting was further fed then by this pretty awesome but terrifying post by PINKODDY - where she outlines in explicit detail the documents and things we need to know to drive legally in France.  But we're now sorted, thanks to her and I realised that my winging it as a single parent just stepped up a serious notch or two.

The only things now are to get the students all stocked up with food before we go away and try not to panic about whether the boys will behave!

Hope you all have a wonderful Easter.

Anya XX