a short break...

We had a rare weekend without a cricket match and so decided to take our caravan for its first outing this year. It's quite an effort to go away just for one night but it was definitely worth it. We didn't go far but we did choose wisely. A lovely site near to plenty of woodland with springer spaniel wearing out in mind (as if).

The initial plan involved dropping 'teenager-who-can't-survive-without-wifi' off at her grandparents for the weekend, along with 'boy-who-doesn't-like-to-leave-his-Xbox-behind' and have a lovely quiet night away. Dog walks, book reading, early night. That all went pear shaped but there were moments of joy for all. One highlight was a family game of cricket. Pretty much make it up as you go along rules. You have to run on everything you hit. If it hits the caravan it's a six! Needless to say there was a lot of running and fielding (unfortunately it was too small an area to let Harvey do the fielding, he would have fetched the ball before it reached the batsman!). M and I were weary after an hour or so of this and suggested a tea break to cries of 'Urrr, boring!' Us boring? Just in need of extra fuel, that's all!

There was even a sibling bonding moment when they discovered 'Guess Who?' At the back of the games cupboard. Last played when they were perhaps 6 and 9.

I was just grateful to be sitting down when we started a marathon run of UNO and later still Rummikub.

Harvey had a whale of a time. On our first walk he found lots of sludgy ditches. On our second one we suddenly came out next to a run of about a hundred chickens. Thank goodness they were well fenced in. I don't think he would have gone after them but previous experience tells me he would have been interested.

It has become a yearly thing not to go too far for too long on our first caravan trip of the year, even though we have it serviced every year. Previously the heating went wrong (and the gas back up was empty) and it wasn't during summer so we had to make a hasty retreat home. One year the fridge didn't co-operate which was no good at all for keeping the milk fresh for tea! This year we seem to have got away with it lightly. Just one light bulb and a bit of trim that needs sticking back on.

There may have been the usual disagreements about a certain offspring not being the most willing helper when it comes to putting up awnings, fetching water, etc but we were unanimous in that the highlight of the trip was having our very own personal concert provided by our neighbouring camper on his guitar. He had quite a repertoire of Jesus songs.