I thought this was meant to be a cheap holiday?! Portugal 2016 - Pre-travel day

[smithlane]

Today's the day!
We are heading to the airport later on but first the kids and I are driving down to East Sussex to my parents to drop Boris off. Drive down was uneventful, the M25 wasn't totally horrendous but I stupidly turned off to drive through Tunbridge Wells instead of carrying straight down the A21. The problem with this is it's ridiculously slow going through the town and Boris barks at every. single. person he sees! Drives us all mad. He's only trying to say hello of course but he's so blinking loud 😁
We make it in about 1 1/2 hours and Boris is very happy to arrive. He loves it here as he gets completely spoiled rotten with treats and gets about 4 walks a day! We are very grateful to them as they save us a fortune in kennels fees
Boris in his element in the garden

We have lunch with mum and a good catch up then make the same journey in reverse however this time the M25 is stop start the whole way 😡
Back home around 4 where I do a post Boris hoover and a final check of the house and pack up the rest of our luggage. Jim gets home around 5 from work and gets himself ready. We are ready and waiting by 6.15 so have a nice chilled wait until the taxi arrives.
6.30 on the dot it pulls up and once loaded up we are on our way. It's no surprise that once again the car park they call the M25 is busy but luckily we're in no rush. Journey takes about an hour and we are soon pulling up to the Best Western Skylane Hotel. Taxi was £75! Perhaps we should have packed lighter so we didn't need a 7 seater 😁
Or maybe left the golf clubs at home 😂
We got all checked in and booked the shuttle for 6.30 the next morning. £3 each for this. Literally dumped our bags in the room then headed to the bar restaurant for dinner. Got seated straight away but had to wait a while for our server, it wasn't too busy in there but seemed to be only 2 members of staff that were working. I ordered a well needed large glass of rose and a Diet Coke. Jim a lager, Hope a Diet Coke and Sam a lemonade.
Time to relax, you know when you are finally in holiday mode and just want to bottle up that feeling. Nothing beats it
For food I ordered fish and chips with beans, Hope a kids chicken nugget meal, Sam and Jim both went with chicken burgers. No fine dining but pleasant enough and filled a hole

Sorry I forgot to take photos before we had tucked in 😳

We had spotted a sainsburys down the road so had a walk down to get some goodies for the room. A serious amount of chocolate and cookies purchased we made our way back to the room.
I decided to have a shower tonight so we weren't rushing in the morning. Remember I'm still in my nice relaxed holiday mode, turn the shower on and try to turn the temperature down when the whole knob comes off in my hands! 🙈
Boiling hot water is going everywhere all over the bathroom so I scream to Jim to come and help. He can't get it back on so I quickly get dressed and go to reception to get more help, luckily we are only a 1 minute walk to the desk. The poor guy can't get it reattached either so we wrap a towel around it while he goes and gets us a new room key!
Thankfully our new room is just across the corridor so we pack up and head over. I'm sure these things only happen to me!
Anyway take 2, I decide I clearly cannot be trusted with the shower so run a nice hot bath 😁
We settle in for the night watching the film About Time, (which is really good btw) surrounded by our treats. Lights off at around 10.30 to get as much sleep as we can before our early start