I wasn’t planning on blogging about our summer holiday but I’ve been nagged into it by my family. I agreed to write something on the condition that I had some help – so we are attempting a joint blog. I’ve seen a friend do this lately and it  has worked really well. So I’m writing in boring black and my 15 year old daughter will write in a way more interesting blue.

So, back to why I  didn’t really want to blog about the holiday. Quite honestly it’s because I’ve not got much to tell anyone. We had a fantastic time doing absolutely nothing. Every day was a variation of the same theme – going out for breakfast, chilling on the beach for the afternoon, heading back to the pool at the villa for an hour or two before going out for dinner. That’s it. End of blog. Nothing exciting, funny or even remotely interesting. But the family nagging got louder (we learnt from the best…) so I decided to just tease out a few moments from the holiday to tell you about.

The travelling day (A.K.A. The day that’s never quite as good as you expect it to be)– This is mainly a note to self. Ignore the kids and do things my way! They always want to get up in the middle of the night, get to the airport at stupid o’clock and arrive at our destination in time for lunch. Because it’s exciting apparently. No it’s not. It’s exhausting. Mum, the old lady in you is coming out again…  And when we arrive too early to occupy the villa, too tired to walk and it’s too hot even for me then it is only going to lead to a grumpy 1st day! Come on mum, stop the moaning – at least we got a well deserved afternoon in the pool. It was fineeeeeee.

The wooden willies – So what is this all about? Everywhere we went there were shelves stacked high with wooden willy souvenirs. Cock bottle openers and key rings seem to be the gifts of choice out there! Why??? I don’t get it.  Yeah, and we all LOVED mum taking multiple photos, at multiple angles in EVERY SINGLE SHOP.

The day with the Fishers – When one of my best friends realised that we were holidaying in Fuerteventura at the same time that they were staying in Lanzarote she immediately offered to visit us for the day. Yay! Liz and I have been best friends since we met at age 11 and our children are of similar ages and have always been close. So this was a great idea. But we hadn’t factored honey rum into the equation. Liz and John discovered this tipple in Lanzarote and decided to bring us a bottle as a gift. But half an hour after their arrival we’d dropped down onto the beach and thought it would be a good idea to crack the bottle open. We despatched the boys to the local HiperDino (think Spa) in search of cups and ice. We were set. A couple of hours and an empty bottle later we’re all shattered and more than a little bit “merry”. I’m sure we looked really classy with our carrier bag of booze on the beach. I think the kids were quite proud. “Quite proud” wouldn’t be how I’d describe it. You can take the girls out of the Black Country…

The mistake that followed was down to the rum – we let the kids choose where to eat because we just couldn’t be arsed to think about it! 

Now we didn’t really think Gordon Ramsay had set up a beachfront franchise in Corralejo, but I do think that the signage for the Gordon Ransay restaurant was a bit cheeky! I’m just glad that I was a *little bit* merry so was able to ignore the poor service and awful food! But it was cheap! Now it makes sense why that restaurant was always empty…

The beach “fall” – My most memorable part of the holiday would be when I was thrown across the beach by Dad. Yeah – you read that right. However, I definitely wouldn’t call it a ‘best bit’. Somehow, we got into a situation where Dad was attempting to pick me up (you’d better ask him why, because I still don’t really know what he was trying  to do)  and at the same time my darling brother decided to launch himself onto dad’s back. To avoid me and Josh being crushed under him, dad though it would be best to catapult me across the beach. Thanks Dad.

The Regrouping – Holidays always bring us back together. Especially these kind of holidays where all we do is relax and enjoy being together as a family. The weeks leading up to the holiday were fairly stressful and full on and we hadn’t been able to spend much quality time together. Holidays make us all remember we quite like each other. That’s the best bit.

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