The Practice Run

For all those that care to know what we are doing whilst prancing around Europa...welcome:)

We thought it would nice to keep a blog, so not to repeat ourselves when we come back (cause we forget) and also because we'll miss you (a bit) and hope you'll be in touch too. It will be free (local rate) to call us anytimeso feel free...

We catch the euro tunnel this Sunday at 6am and come back Mon 23rd August, thats a few weeks. We have our plan of where and when we will be 'frolicking and finding' and I hope to post that on here soon should anyone have a burst of spontaneity and want to join us our here!!!

So we had our first practice run last weekend in the peak district. We arrived fairly late (10pm) and I was getting a sweat on about where

we will stay for the night, kids were both awake. We immediately hit our first problem...the internet campsite lead us down some narrow lane with a querky bridge with what felt like a 40% gradient, there we were in the rain wit

h no turning circle co-ordinates says 'here is the campsite', nada. I laugh at the rhetoric between Pete and I as we keep suggesting to go further

into the deep dark unknown (to what seemed like now a bridle path) and he keeps asking me to just 'find a campsite'.

In attempting to be moral and honest we ended up doing our usual ad-lib antics and found a very busy campsite with the gates open, and no-one in reception ...we thought that was nice of them:)

Pitching up was tent free and frankly brilliant but with all of us stuck in it and raining outside the van seemed like alice in wonderlands room after she ate the cake(or is that the drink?).

As you can see the kids just laugh at us constantly especially as the

alarm goes off. It was a little stressful, its not like I thought it would be; running a little house is easy but frustrating when you had loads of space before, but this van space takes my

fathers 5'p's (Prior, planning, prevents, poor/or another 4 letter word, performance) to the extreme. Everything you move is in the way or making something else malfunction. You're always touching someone or something you shouldn't, total personal space invasion. There are some banging of heads proceeded by more laughing from the children BUT you cant beat being in that pop up roof, hearing the river, sucking that nature in, leaving all the world behind. I love it when you can put life in perspective. Family is all that matters and at that end of the night I lay there forced-spooning with all my sleeping family and I am happy...

...Ritually, my mind turns to someone else who I insanely miss and wish to be here. As I drift off to sleep I hear someone fart and I smile, everything seems to be in order, for now.