Another milestone came and went this week, not only in the countdown to our holiday, but in Emily’s high-speed non stop journey to adulthood.
Thursday was Prom night, and in one way or another we’ve been building up to this for quite some time. Those with good memories will know that we bought Emily’s dress some months ago, and those with a sympathetic nature will recall my recent horror and devastation when buying the shoes that went with it.
Luckily, Louise’s day off each week is a Thursday, so this meant that it was the ultimate girlie day, with visits to the hairdressers, and about four hours of getting ready. For once, for me being at work wasn’t the worst place to be. Rebecca chipped in by helping out with the make up, and by the time I got home at around 6pm, stress levels were high, and the house was full of dressed up teens, and a large collection of relatives, who all turned up to get the photos and wave them off. The departure point was our house of course!
However, stress and crowds aside, the end result was impressive.
I have to say a formal thank you to my sister in law’s brother (no idea what the official title for that is!) for providing the transport. I shall just say he works in the motor trade, and was able to select and drive a suitably glitzy Mercedes. Really nice of you Dave, cheers! So we waved them off at around 6.30, and I shall award absolutely no prizes whatsoever for guessing who was due to go and pick them up at the end?
Yep, the trusty old Mondeo is fine for picking up under cover of darkness! The scenes outside the venue at around 11.30pm were a little chaotic, with a mixture of the tired and emotional, hyper and those simply more than ready to get the tight dresses and crippling shoes off, and that was just the boys! My pick up party emerged with balloons, a photo or two and smiles, so all seemed well.
As the last few moments prior to them leaving had been, quite frankly, a chaotic nightmare with seemingly hundreds of grown ups all over the house taking photos and giving out hugs, I made Emily pose for a photo or two more when she got back, hence the darkness outside on this one, taken in a spot familiar to many of you.
I could not be more proud of Emily. Beautiful, sensible, funny, bright and far too good for any male on the planet!
The sight of the second most famous door in the country (the other one has a 10 on it), brings me onto the darn right imminentness (yes, it is a word) of our holiday now. That very same door will be seeing more photo action in just over two weeks now, in the traditional start of the holiday pose that the girls enjoy so much!! This led me this weekend to put fingers to keyboard and squirt out the pre trip report for this year’s jaunt. I always say that I don’t quite get the concept of these, but I had a go anyway.
I think everything is now in place, with the dollars ordered and received, and all the relevant paperwork printed off and stored in my special planning folder. You see, if I am not careful I run the risk of making myself sound a little sad here. I care not. A colleague of mine said to me this week that my approach to holidays is “out of the ordinary”. I think he wanted to call me a sad OCD freak, but as he works for me he probably thought better of it.
I stand by my obsessive planning, as these trips are not normal holidays. They are for folk who actually enjoy doing a lot of the DIY booking stuff, researching things for hours, and then making an informed choice. They are not your one trip to Going Places and forget about it till the airport type things. Well they aren’t for us anyway. Writing the pre trippie this week reminded me just how much work goes into the planning and research, never mind the mind bending amount of actual work to get the money to fund them!! This adds months of enjoyment of course, if you are that way inclined (and I am), but it can also add a large amount of pressure to the holiday. After all that hard work you can be so wired about the whole thing that you forget to enjoy the bloody thing. Don’t worry, I think I’ve cracked that one by now.
I will not be the only liked minded soul to cast a thought to a holiday for next year, before this years has even taken place.
As we get this close, it gets to stage where you don’t even mind weekends slipping by, as you know it is all gravy in the snail-like countdown to lift off. Weekends now are spent buying the last few bits of clothing required by each of us. In my twenty year rotation of the shorts collection, I have completed the usual addition of a couple of pairs this year, and will make the heartbreaking decision as we pack which two will be left behind. It will be a heartbreaker, we’ve been through so much together.
Yes I know it is simply amazing that the same shorts still fit me after so many years. It is simply a matter of eating right and regular exercise. You know those two come naturally to me.
We’re entering the home straight folks. It will drag more than a Coldplay gig, but it has to get here sooner or later. I may become unbearable between now and then, particularly if you work with me, and don’t appreciate daily updates on the number of days remaining. Steve, I apologise here and now!
Till the next time……
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