Confessions of an Author

Palma del Rio, Spain Palma del Rio, Spain Family Holiday 2008. A learning experience…… Saturday 2nd August  (Please note the month. It matters…) Flew to Malaga. Waited over an hour for Hertz hire car to be ready. Drove to Palma del Rio. The instructions, map and actual road numbers all completely different. Felt somewhat stressed. Spent about an hour in Palma del Rio trying to find villa. In the end we phoned the owner and forced Rebecca to use her GCSE Spanish and get us directions. (She actually did rather well.) Met Pepe. Villa very pretty, lots of dark wood and comfortable furniture. Rather smelly (of poo.) Extremely hot. (This villa can still be booked through: holidaylettings.co.uk I notice that it now has air conditioning. If your husband ever tells you that ceiling fans are just as good as air conditioning, do not believe him. Went to Supermarket in Palma del Rio. Hard to find stuff without speaking spanish. Bought food and cleaning materials...

Packing 1    Today will be stressful – packing for the family holiday. If you’re a mother, you will know what I mean. If you’re male (not being sexist or anything), read on… There is oceans of washing to do. It seems a bad idea to leave dirty clothes to fester in the laundry basket, plus there is all the bedding. I don’t like the idea of returning after two weeks away to sheets that have been slept/sweated/dribbled in for a week and then locked into a room to ferment. Obviously I cannot wash it all the day we leave, but it feels better if it’s washed the day before – so just one night of body fluids sweated into them. Then there is the animal stuff. Dog and grumpy-cat taken to kennels, their bedding and towels left here. I can leave them – and be welcomed home by the thick  odour a la dog , or I can wash them before I go. Thank goodness for washing machines and please can mine not break today. Of course, not everyone has this problem. I have known people (not ...