Well I was full of good intentions at the end of last year’s festival season. I would write lovely reviews, fix the tent, buy some amazing retro equipment to go with my shiny new camper van and I would have a easy to read calendar on the fridge of all our away days as a family (colour coded of course). But, alas, here I am, sitting indoors with only weeks to go before the end of term, listening to the rain and wondering what to do next. Without a camper van in sight!
When the kids were babies, toddlers and smalls, I could book tickets, do the washing and packing, sort the car and be off with a mere 2 days notice. The kids wouldn’t really notice we were away until they woke up the next day in a Thunder Birds sleeping bag next to a grubby cousin!
These days I have teenagers…. Oh the gods, teenagers who have hormones. They are the worst kind, the kind that wants to bring three changes of shoes for each day, the kind that wants to know where to plug in the phone charger every 10 minutes or the kind that refuses to wash for a week before the off in order to ‘smell authentic’… ewwww.
The packing routine for a festival trip now consists of :
- washing
- putting piles of clean clothes in teenagers rooms
- shouting
- shouting more
- finally having to pack myself at 6am on departure day
- sleeping the whole way there (kids, not me!).
I think I preferred them as babies !!