Zen

No more unpacking as of today! Not that there aren't plenty of boxes still waiting to be explored, but we're going on holiday! Two weeks of al fresco fun awaits us.

Only last week did we finally get around to booking a French shoebox that sort of sleeps four people. You only need to fold away the entire kitchenette, hoist down a bed, fold out another bed in front of the bathroom door and Bob is your uncle. A call of nature during the long mosquito filled nights will offer an interesting choice: you either pee in the measuring jug - don't ever use it for anything else! - or from the balcony.
Anyway it is all going to be just wonderful, as we are meeting up with some dear friends that we met whilst living in England almost a decade ago. The children can't wait to catch up with their Mancunian mates and frankly, neither can I. I absolutely adore our (almost) annual cake eating, wine drinking, beach combing, cycle riding days together.
But first we're going to get ourselves reacquainted with our sailing boat. We bought her a lifetime ago, years before we started a family, together with equally watersports-minded friends. We used to spend most weekends and holidays sailing. And even after the children were born we just added little hammocks, a potty, duplo blocks and tiny life jackets to the ship's inventory and carried on as usual.
It's been exactly nine years since we last set foot on our boat, so I am a little apprehensive. Although we've had many, many lovely days aboard, in my post-move stressed state, I can only remember husband W. shouting and myself shrieking because we forgot to reef the sails before setting off in rough weather, or me steering the boat to the left, while he kept yelling 'right', 'right'.
The weather however looks perfect for the next couple of days: mediterranean temperatures and very little wind. And of course the children are twelve and ten, instead of two and four and that surely
must make a difference. Staring at the horizon on a gently rocking sail boat I am sure will be just what the doctor ordered to get us all into a state in which we can tackle new schools, new jobs, a new house and a non existing social life.
In order to take full advantage of the possibility that I might actually relax this coming fortnight, I am going to try to live a Wifi free life. Trying to post a blog from the only harbour with a hotspot in a fifty mile radius, or a Mc Donalds along a French motorway, isn't going to get me in the zen like state that I will be working towards over the next fourteen days.
So until the 5th of August (at least) it is going to be dead quiet on the blog front. For anyone who in the meantime comes knocking at my virtual door, I will just leave two words: gone sailing.