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I can’t imagine that if it happened today there would be the chance to express unbridled mourning or such gleeful jokes without a shitstorm coming down upon you. And although some people did get cross at the time as various jokes were tweeted ( from me, largely about the situation and response rather than laughing at the demise of a troubled man), it was a much freer and less judgmental time and it also means that it’s ten years since the birth of my die-hard fans joke. I come up with so few jokes, that it’s probably worth celebrating the tenth anniversary.
With my in-laws briefly away from the holiday, we’ve had 48 hours of looking after the kids and dog on our own, which wouldn’t really be an issue at home, but feels like we were being consigned to Hell whilst away. But it’s actually been OK. I took both kids to soft play yesterday and this morning even managed to get them and the dog down to the beach for a 7am walk. I read them stories in the cafe after 8am and managed to get them both to sit still on a sofa with me. Which is beyond remarkable.
Doing things in shifts seems to be the way to do this, but this afternoon we went to the beach as a family and then back to the hotel for a cream tea and discovered that if we sat out on the terrace and no one else was there, we basically had an almost safe play area that Ernie could not escape from and the pair of them played together under chairs and tables leaving us free to eat unhealthy food and in Catie’s case have a cocktail and it was probably the highlight of the entire holiday. The older one was actually playing with the little one leaving us free of almost all responsibilities.
And having two kids running around in this small area pretty much put off anyone else from joining us. The only thing worse than being with your own children is being with someone else’s. And that can be weaponised.
I was glad to get the chance for a solo dog walk and went up the hill in the evening sunshine, looking down on the town and the bay and the sewage works. It was glorious. Though used up my last reserves of energy.
I’ve eaten lots in the last ten days, but I’ve moved around a lot too and I genuinely can’t work out if I will have put on half a stone or lost some weight (well I don’t think I will have lost any, but anything under a 2kg gain will count as a win).
Definitely my favourite day of the holiday so far though. But also quite looking forward to getting back to work and having a rest.
