July has been quite the month. Hot on the heels of a big birthday for me, we celebrated our 32nd wedding anniversary (I know, I don’t look old enough. What can I say). And just a few days after we published July’s issue we booked some flights and were in Marseilles by Tuesday lunchtime. I say that so casually – but this was the first time we had flown in 23 years. This was a very BIG small flight for us.
When our oldest was a toddler we had left him with the grandparents and taken off for a post-Uni celebratory week in Portugal. For no good reason whatsoever, seasoned traveller Courtenay panicked on the flight. The return trip was no better, and an irrational fear of flying had set in. We should have got straight back on a plane, of course, but instead we opted to have two more babies and consequently very little money or energy for foreign holidays.
By the time our daughter (no.4) came along, we were very used to the car/boat/train options dictating our travel. But now, No.1 son lives 4,000 miles away – and we’re off to visit him soon.
C decided his first flight could not be a 14hr one, so to Marseilles we went. And it was a beautifully dull, boring flight with zero drama. Perfect.
Of course, we returned to the UK refreshed and relaxed, only to pick up Covid … I got swiftly better, and C got worse. And worse.
The last couple of weeks have been an exhausting tumble of attempting to stay on top of things and desperately trying to remember how relaxed we were just a couple of weeks ago in the middle of a French vineyard.
Everyone knows we’re a team. But being man down in our 48th publication week (FOUR YEARS! We can’t believe it!), I’ll admit the wheels came off. Suddenly the team wasn’t teaming. It may be publication week, but I’ve had to do laundry, clean the kitchen, feed everybody, make my own lunch, remember whether it’s paracetamol or ibuprofen next … THIS IS NOT THE SERVICE I HAVE COME TO EXPECT. It culminated with a very long day and evening in A&E.
Luckily he’s now doing much better – but I have warned him he’s never to be ill in publication week again. It just won’t do.
I’ve missed him.
Laura x
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