Life by the pool

Ah, holiday time. I'm writing this by the side of the pool with a cup of tea, sun shining and all is good in the world. The girls have turned into fish overnight and it's all we can do to prise them out of the pool periodically to eat and reapply some suntan lotion. Not that the latter is doing any good, they're already brown as buttons. I'm working on the principal that as long as they don't burn I'm doing a reasonable parenting job. Abi is currently streaking up and down the pool with snorkel and flippers counting off lengths, and Izzy is seeing how high she can bounce - she's finally grown enough to be able to stand in the shallow end - result!

If last year in Crete we felt the initial benefits of all those swimming lessons, this year it's a no brainer. They are super confident and super competent so suddenly it's stress free poolside and we can kick back, relax and read our books, what a treat. Obviously this interspersed with a bike ride or two - both Glenn and I have brought our bikes and with yet another big ride looming for Glenn (not me, I'm happy to just to ride at the moment) he's cramming in the miles. The riding around here is superb, with lots of choice between quiet hill routes and open riverside roads. This coupled with the French courtesy towards cyclists makes for lovely riding.

On the subject of riding Abi and I are off to the local stables this afternoon for a 2 hour hack together. Should be interesting - I understand that their English is limited, and our french is nonexistent... As long as we can work out walk, trot, canter and whoa we should do just fine! Little Izzy isn't old enough to join us this year so instead she's lined up a horse ride at the gite with Jerry and Pauline's daughter Sian, she's just as pleased with that.

As ever once here we just sink into total relaxation, regardless of the stresses and strains of the journey. This year the SatNav managed to persuade us to come off the main road onto a caravan infested D road - not great for anyone's blood pressure... This meant a heart stopping couple of hours while Glenn tried to overtake half of France's slow traffic with me pointing out that here was no particular rush - ha ha. We finally made it back into the main A roads again and safely here - lesson learned about making sure you know which roads are preferable rather than trusting technology.

On the subject of technology I have left my work phone at home, determined to properly switch off. I see too many out of office emails which state "I'm on holiday and will only be picking up emails periodically " and that's from our junior staff. No wonder they don't want to be partners if their perception is that it gets worse! We had a meeting before I went on leave about what it means to be a partner and the common view is that you have to sell a pice of your soul. This might be true, but at least you should be able to get it back again when on holiday. One of the main reasons my 90% contract is so valuable is that I am able to say "I'm not full time" which gives me slightly more leeway. Not perfect but what job is?

So we have our standard holiday trips lined up - Rocamadour, Castlenord, and (finally) a trip down the river in canoes. I say finally because we've wanted to do this for years but the kids needed to be at least 7 and of course Miss Honesty Izzy neither passed for 7 until now or would have pulled off a fib, unlike her sister! This said, my compliance chip wouldn't have allowed me to let her do it either ("what if something happened..."). So if we can pull ourselves away from the pool, cycling, horse riding, ice cream eating we might get there!

Ho hum, pool calling - must go!