It’s half term and for a lot of parents that means holidays and, specifically at this time of year, skiing.
By the time you read this, I should be falling down a mountain in Italy kidding myself that I really want to go at this speed and I can stop whenever I want to.
This will be the first year that we have gone skiing during the half-term holidays as previously we were always bad parents and took our son out of school to go – however he is now 12 and “at the big school” so it is not really responsible to do that anymore. This means that like the rest of good mums and dads, we now have to pay the premium to go during school holidays.
And what a premium it is, flights are about 30 per cent more, hotels about 60pc and lift passes and equipment rental the same. I did suggest that Debbie and I go later and we send James to Dubai to stay with a mate and ski in Ski Dubai! Funnily enough, she wasn’t too warm to that idea so the credit card is getting a hit. I guess we won’t be doing any brunches in March.
Then there is the packing. As seasoned travellers, we always leave the packing till about 10 minutes before we are due to leave the house for the airport. This usually consists of chucking in one set of underwear and socks for each day we are away and then a selection of T-shirts, shirts, shorts, jeans and a set of trainers. This means that we end up with far more than we need and about six bags.
When we get the hire car, it is normally only big enough for three bags so James sits on some in the back. That was fun last summer when we drove over 4830km in the UK with the first day a drive from Heathrow to Central Scotland.
This time, we are skiing so we need to squeeze in the ski jackets, ski trousers, thermal underwear, thick socks, gloves, helmet and goggles. Then there is the electronics: Two phones each (one with our Bahrain chip and another for a local chip) laptop computer, tablet, camera, Go-Pro, Kindle and all the relevant chargers and spare batteries. James announced he is taking his WiFi as well which means cables and controllers too.
Then there is the pharmacy, all the usual drugs for cholesterol, blood pressure, etc. and pills for stomach upsets and of course the obligatory painkillers. You definitely need painkillers on a skiing holiday or you’re not doing it right.
We also have to take an empty bag just in case we have some time for shopping and end up with lots more to return with. Honestly, it’s a complete shambolic operation. A few years ago, we tried packing a week before but then we ended up taking things back out of the bags because we wanted to wear them that day. We spent the entire week packing and repacking the bags and in the end started again 10 minutes before the taxi arrived.
I just remembered in time that I had this to write so I had to take time from the packing. I am being shouted at now so see you next week.
Jackie@JBeedie.com
&uuid=(email))