Silent Sunday

Outside of our Finca, covered in bougainvillea

LBR and LBL in their Zoobug sunglasses

The outside our bedroom window

Did you know....?

Did you know,  If a teenage girl throws her sisters Ipod Nano into the pool (whilst having a strop.)  that it still works if you get it from the bottom of the pool and put it in the sun for an hour?

Did you know,  In Mallorca the chickens and their chicks (which are days old) see off all the cats and eat all the cat food?

Did you know, If you let teenagers have "a shandy", they end up having "a  few" beers and think you can't tell? (coming back completely plastered)

Did you know, Life doesn't get much better than this?

Did you know, If you send teenagers to the shop to buy bread, cloth's and milk, they come back with a few sweets and nothing else because they can't find the rest?

Did you know, As a mother of 2 young boys, sitting even for an hour to read a book is impossible? (I have been here for 10 days and am on page 20)

Did you know, When the husband and I go out without the children for the evening, (our first time since LBL was born) after an hour, we spent the whole time looking over our shoulder, really excited the boys are coming to join us?

Did you know, Although I have absolutely no "me time", my clothes are being pulled at all the time, my clothes are constantly dirty with snot, food, dirt, I am still sleep deprived, I have aged 10 years in the past 5, I would not change a single thing?

Did you know, I was born to be a Mother and feel extremely privileged and very lucky

Silent Sunday. Mallorca

LBL stroking a chick in Mallorca

Now that's a water Melon

A Very Happy boy

A perfect Mallorca Peach

Fresh Eggs

LBR wearing Zoobug sunglasses

Campanet, Mallorca

The Finka we are staying in, is in a little village called Campenet at the foot of the Mallorca Hills, to the north of the island, about 10km from Inca. There is a pithier of shops and small cafes around the central square were a beautiful church dominates. The Church  chimes on the hour and the half hour.

Campanet Mallorca

It is very much a traditional Spanish village. The square is “the place” to socialise. Where gossip is exchanged, where the elderly and the young mix and equally feel at home. Last night and tonight a touring theatre is in town. They provide 15minutes sketches using the local shops and pubs as their theatre, which surprisingly proved really popular with the locals

The food served in the café is a mixture of traditional Spainish and American to cater for the tourist, especially cyclist who stop here for a break, before tackling the Huge Hills( a lot of the Olympic team train here)

Its incredibly child friendly. All the children are still out playing in the middle of the square at 10.00pm whilst the parents have a drink and keep an eye on them. Everyone is extremely well behaved.

Alcudia Beach is about a 15minutes drive away. Far enough away for the village to keep it's Mallocan feel, but close enough to enjoy one of the best child friendly beaches in Europe.

The Mallorca hills

If you wanted a holiday that has the feeling of being in the middle of Spain, with all their traditions,  with child friendly facilities a spitting distance away. Then this is the area for you.

Mallorca and Travelling with 7

I sit here by a beautiful pool with the Mallocan hills behind me. The temperature is a blamy 30C degrees, the chickens and their chicks are resting barely a few feet away from my sun bed. The peace is occasionally broken by the cock crowing and a dog barking occasionally in the distance.

The Teenagers

I have to say, this is the first time I have sat down in the past 3-4days. The actual travelling from Bournemouth to Mallorca was pretty simple. The cab arrived as promised pretty promptly at 4.45. We arrived at the airport 20 minutes later. We went straight through departures as we only had hand luggage. The flight was on time and thankfully none eventful. We were in a cab on the way to Campenet within half an hour of landing and arrived in Campanet half an hour later. Simple.

It was the organisation to get to that point that was so stressful. Due to family circumstances, my parents now look after my 2 teenage nieces. In order to give them a break, “the husband” and I take them away every year (that sounds very grand. . .this is the second yr) to give my parents a break. Step D, also comes along. So it is the 7 of us. 3 Teenagers, a 2 year old, a 5 year old and “the husband and I”

The day before we travelled I had to go and pick both girls up from different locations in London. The dogs had to be looked after, so I was franticlly trying to find someone who would be willing to come into the house to look after them. Which led to more stress, as then the house needed to be really cleaned. (not just the lick and a polish, I would have done!)

LBR finished school 2 days early. Before I set off to pick up the girls, I had to go to see his new teachers and find out about yr 1 (that’s another post!). Ryan Air require you to check in on-line before departure. The system kept crashing and wouldn’t allow me to check in Step D and then the printer wouldn’t work, to print the boarding cards.

Family fun!

So I sit here now, really, really appreciating where I am. One of the girls is teaching LBR to dive, (there is a lot of laughing going on) LBL is asleep and the others are laughing in the pool, throwing a ball around. Does it get better than this?

Ryanair, Mallorca and So called Cheap Flights!

Only 3 more sleeps and we are going on hoilday. We have been counting down from about 40. LBR is VERY excited! We are lucky, we live about 20mins from Bournemouth International Airport or Hurn if you're a local! The flight fly's directly to Palma, so it's quicker to get to Mallorca, than it is to get to my parents near Huntington. We have an evening flight, so in theory the boys may sleep. (yeah right!)

I just wanted to have a moan about Ryan Air(I'm not putting a link to their website!) Not only did I have to pay over £80 to book with my debit card, but they also wanted £88 to check in a suit case.

I have dithered whether to take one on not. We know the village we are staying in. We can buy everything there. But stuff like suntan lotion, shampoos, mosquito repellent, are going to be extortionate. So it might end up being cheaper to pay the £88 and take everything over.

The Ryan air website also won't let me book in on-line, it keeps freezing. . .and to top it off, my printer won't work(LBL has been using it as a step to get on the sofa.) which I need to print the boarding cards off.

But I am not complaining too much, as this time in 4 sleeps, I will be sitting by a pool in the sunshine! Or more likely, running in and out of the villa getting, juice, suntan lotion, food, towels, cameras. . .you get the picture!!