Preparations

---

With our departure date 3 weeks away we are as preoccupied with preparations here as we are getting excited about going. Nicky is inevitably taking care of the details of the trip, she is today muttering about ordering and paying for our malarone. Jake is excited about the TV project, whereas Elliot is struggling with suddenly being everychild's best friend as they plead to get onto TV. He was met at the school gate by a gaggle of girls, not half as attractive to a 7 year old as it might be to a 17 year old!
I am desperately trying to get ahead of myself at school and finding that the harder I work the more someone turns up the controls on the treadmill we are trying to get free of.

It has been a funny week with a minor op on Monday, and my legs badly waxed by a year 9 girl for comic relief on Friday - I doubt anyone has set off for warmer climes with such strangely bald and hairy legs. Odd the things we do for charity.

My excitement is mixed with some guilt over leaving some members of my family who are going through difficult times (though they insist we should go) and my year 11s who are weeks from their GCSEs but life is not a dress rehearsal and we have been dreaming of this since the boys were born, and now is the perfect balance of them being young enough and dependent enough for us to not be interrupting their lives, and old enough to appreciate and remember the details.

Packing is a black hole, with the boys responding to the revelation that they needed to pack everything required for 5 months into the bags they normally take to Granny's for a sleep over, with a perfectly synchronised look at each other and uttering "Uh-oh we're in trouble!" I have visions of bags full of toys and DS games and no clothes. Apparently I am carrying anything that Nicky and the boys cannot fit in, though I cannot help wondering "where I am meant to pack my own stuff?"

---

Comments

[Big Nige]

Go for it people and good luck!