Back home, and guess what?

yep ...

An obtuse moment at the pool today

And, no, unfortunately it has nothing to do with free massages.

We have elected this week to sun worship at the 'party' pool. In other words at the pool where they play music all day. The main reasons for this are because

1. it has a snackbar at it, handy for kids with the munchies
2. they have organised pool activities for kids throughout the day
3. therefore plenty of other kids to keep kids occupied

To be fair, the music is fairly mellow, and not that loud. However today an odd thing happened.

As I was lying sizzling in the sun, I became aware that people were starting to sit up on their sunbeds or had stopped reading their books. Then a sort of eerie silence seemed to descend on the area as it was obvious people were straining to hear the music currently being played at the poolside.

Next people were asking the people beside them for confirmation of what they thought they might be hearing. And then there were looks of amazement and the laughing started.

Eventually, the pool had come to a standstill and some sunbathers had started singing along. The song? Mariah Carey, All I want for Christmas!

Well, it is only 5 months away ...

Kids are loving Crete

I left them at Kids Club this morning and went back an hour later to see them supping cocktails and playing Bingo!

I hate Crete :-p

Free massages given by a Greek Adonis at the pool today - what's to hate you ask??

Unlike me as it is to miss out on a freebie, especially such a handsome looking freebie, I didn't manage to get one :-(

Maybe tomorrow ...

Drunks, miracles and clapping, but not necessarily in that order

I am currently blogging from Greece. We arrived here at 4am (local time) this morning and have since enjoyed a relatively quiet and hot day at the pool.

The journey was virtually wholly uneventful, well, more so for us than for the two pensioners who were frog-marched off our flight by police before take-off at Belfast for having consumed too much alcohol. Tut tut the older generation!

Here is something I am keen to find out. We had a very pleasant, smooth, and otherwise quiet flight but when we landed in Crete last night, the entire shipment of passengers gave an impromtu round of applause for the pilot. You do have to ask yourself why; I mean if a trained pilot can't get that bit right ....

I have to say, this is not unusual for flights from Northern Ireland, in fact I can think of a number of flights were this has been the case. However, I can't think of one example on any flight I have taken from any other airport were people have clapped when the pilot has landed.

Anyway, I am interested to know if anyone else has ever had the inflight 'clapping' experiences.

One other observation from the airport yesterday. At check-in, the line beside us were heading to Lourdes. Obviously, due to the nature of the trip, there were a lot of disabled travellers, and the children were interested so we explained briefly what the nature of their trip was.

Imagine then, the look of absolute surprise on little faces when the lady at the front of the queue got up out of her wheelchair and walked up to give her ticket to the girl at the desk.

Thanks Nancy!

Create your own family sticker graphic at pYzam.com

Glitter, glitter everywhere

My daughter made me a card today, a beautiful card smothered in red glitter, and I am delighted with it.

Even though the rest of the house seems to be smothered in red glitter now too.

What apparently happened was that she opened the glitter tube the wrong way, and as a result the contents (entire) of the tube spilt out onto her plastic mat. Good girl - you remembered to use your plastic mat! Some missed the mat however and went on the carpet.

She tried to scoop the glitter back into the tube off the mat, but that wouldn't work, so between them they worked out that if they folded the mat, they could pour the glitter back into the tube. Even better, they thought they should do this over the bathroom sink. Good thinking kids, you've got the right idea. Result; glitter sprinkled from bedroom to bathroom.

They managed to get some of the glitter back into the tube (half approximately), some down the sink which was 'wiped away' with not one but two facecloths and the rest remaining stuck to the mat, which was walked downstairs to be brushed. Result; glitter upstairs and downstairs.

Hoover was then deployed to suck up glitter from carpet, but seems to have as much stuck to the outside of it as it sucked up, and two pairs of little feet are trampling glitter everywhere they go as I type.

But, I absolutely love my card :-)

Camping latest

Our previous summer camping trips have been well documented on this blog here, here and here. And yes, the date we have all been waiting for, the start of this years trip, is just around the corner!

This Saturday, the 19th July, we are due to set off on the next camping expedition, this time to Co. Kerry on the far west coast of Ireland.

Only ...

Mummy found a cheap holiday to Greece on the internet and instead of a rainy week in lovely Co.Kerry, we'll be heading off for a sunny week in glorious Greece!

Hubba hubba :-)

PS all suggestions for holiday reading greatly received

Sizeism

Definition: discrimination because of size: discrimination against somebody on the basis of the person's size, especially the person's unusual tallness, shortness, fatness, or thinness.

I would like to ask Marks & Spencer, if you don't charge a woman who is size 20 more for a pair of trousers, then why should I pay more because I wear an F cup in a bra?

My Wordle

Dana, one of my eloquent friends from Texas, created a wordle for her blog, and I fancied one but couldn't get it to work for me, so the very lovely Dana did this one for me! Doesn't it just highlight my current obsession nicely?? Thanks Dana for going to the trouble of doing this :-)

The 'great' British weather

If Noah was alive and well and living in Belfast, he'd have started building another ark by now. And I'd have been helping him.

Apart from one days glorious respite yesterday, when, even though the forecast was for rain, the sun shone all day, it has rained here for 7 days and nights continuously.

And the weather for the next 5 days is no better; heavy rain today, light rain tomorrow, light rain on Monday, heavy rain on Tuesday and heavy rain on Wednesday.

Of course, you know why this is, don't you. Yep, we've been talking about going camping ....