Breaking away...
Planning for a family weekend away requires military-precision planning, I have found, designed to exhaust you before you even start.
Before a relaxing (ha!) break we embarked upon recently there was the usual multitude of tasks to tick off the old list, which naturally all fell to me, before the off.
Husbands, I find, tend to neatly narrow their role down to two major functions at times such as these.
a) Fuming about the ludicrous amount of stuff being taken as they crowbar suitcases and the kitchen sink into the boot of the car that they usually keep nice and clean and empty.
And b) Starting up car and getting all impatient as lights are turned off, goldfish are fed, bins are emptied and note is left out for the milkman.
Anyway, the planning for our weekend started the week before with gentle nagging of husband and sons to sort out clothes required so they were all washed and hopefully vaguely dried in time.
This being the sort of country where there can be four seasons in one day, I had to make sure, amid many protestations, as sons prefer to go without and then get cold, that they all had jumpers, coats, etc.
Then, this being a self-catering break, I had to ensure too we took enough food in cool bag for that night, and breakfast.
I then printed off AA directions to destination, and to other activities we were doing, that I had pre-booked, along with a restaurant for that night, and navigated husband to said destination.
A nice weekend was had by all, phew, and we were enjoying a meal together on our last night. I was feeling quietly pleased that all my arrangements had gone to plan, when the issue of personal qualities came up.
"Personally, I think mum lacks a bit of common sense," says elder teenage son.
* Husband has uncanny knack of eating stuff earmarked for lunchboxes and therefore out-of-bounds to him.
He thinks this ban is outrageous, of course, and deliberately hunts out Penguin bars, making jokes about searchlights swishing as he does so.
But he isn't the one, is he, who has to drive to Tesco garage at 10pm for top-up supplies when he has cleaned out the cupboard?
sue.gilson@chiobserver.co.uk
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Weather for Bognor
Sunday 12 February 2012
Today
Light sleet showers
Temperature: 2 C to 5 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 2 C to 6 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: North west
