Friday 18 September 2009

Fun, rain and pain in Spain

Vanessa and I are going to need a holiday after this...erm...holiday.

The two of us are fortunate to have been on several beach-type holidays over the years. And we´ve often wondered how hard it would be with a young child in tow. Well, a young child is one thing but a young Jamie is quite another - and it´s very, very hard.

For example, I brought two books with me to last the seven days. And how far have I got? I´ve read precisely half a page (and not much even happened in those three paragraphs, which was particularly disappointing).

Don´t get me wrong, our boy´s been good - when he´s not been teething, that is. For, yes, more little pearlers are on their way and this time they include some of the big jobs at the back. We didn´t get him down until past midnight last night, more than five hours after his bedtime. Thankfully, he´s a lot brighter today so we - and he - have got to be happy about that.

He was well-behaved on the flight too, largely thanks to the two big Northern blokes behind us who were only too happy to give him high fives whenever he chose. But, save for 40 minutes of sleep, he didn´t stay motionless for more than three seconds at a time (as Vanessa and I took it in turns to have him on our knees).

At the beach and in the cafes, he´s spent all his "free time" (i.e. when he´s not tied to his pram or a high chair) running around and flirting with what appears to be the cast of Cocoon (there are a lot of very "mature" people staying/preparing to die here).

On other matters, we landed in the middle of a lightning storm which was accompanied by the first rain Murcia has had since March (the Whites are in town so it was kind off inevitable) and, boy, did it chuck it down.

We had a lot of wind on Wednesday and Thursday too and the beach pretty much cleared en masse yesterday afternoon when the sand began to whip up.

Our "baby-equipped" apartment is excellent, but for the fact that, on arrival, it wasn´t baby-equipped - I would´ve thought a travel cot and a highchair would be key to the description (especially since we ordered both in advance) and we had neither. However, the cot arrived on day two and the highchair appeared about an hour ago. Better very late than not at all though.

Oh, and I fell off a swing this morning. At least I can now say from personal experience that that foam stuff they put down these days to prevent injuries works, even when you´re a daddy. (Jamie cried rather than laughed whenever it happened, which I was quite touched about. There again, I was holding him at the time).

They have an Irish bar here (there´s a shock), its two Euros a pint, the weather´s looking good now and I don´t have work on Monday (or Tuesday), so things are looking up (a bit like me as I lay on the ground, staring at the sky after falling off my swing).

PS A prize to anyone who spotted the "deliberate" mistake in my last post i.e. Spain is only one hour ahead of UK time and not two as I said. I blame Vanessa as it was her fault).

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