A great big beautiful – Summer 2022

[Kat11]

Woohoo 🎉 you are on the final stretch now!

I’m excited for you. 😁

Out of interest are you going to fill in your vacation planner? I love looking at those and seeing what peoples basic plans are each day.

Kat x

[Goldia]

Max won't starve

This morning I went shopping to stock up on treats for Max.

Lots of fizzy drinks, chocolate milk, smoothies, crisps, chocolate, biscuits, sausages, sausage rolls, bacon, waffles, bagels, croissants, yoghurt, ice cream, pizza and that's on top of all the ready meals like lasagne, bolognese, pasta etc that are in the freezer from our leftovers.

Kate thinks I've lost my mind. I just want to make sure he has lots of treats while we are away. She doesn't reckon he will manage to eat even half of it. So, I pointed out if that was the case then there would be loads of treats left for her when we get home.

[Goldia]

Originally Posted by Kat11

Woohoo 🎉 you are on the final stretch now!

I’m excited for you. 😁

Out of interest are you going to fill in your vacation planner? I love looking at those and seeing what peoples basic plans are each day.

Kat x

See more...

Hiya Kat

It's not up to date at all! But that sounds like the perfect afternoon activity for me, so I will get on it!

A x

[Goldia]

Cases are out of the Loft

Lol! I know I'm likely to lose my dibb membership here as even though I'm a planner extraordinaire I'm not an advance packer.

This weekend I will tell the other 2 they can't wear any of the clothes they want! We will lay out all our stuff. Cull loads of Daves shirts and shoes. Pack everything and then try to relax.

Meanwhile as per popular demand, well at least one person wanted it 😅, I’ve update my dibb vacation planner. A massive thanks to Kat for giving me a job to do this afternoon and stave off boredom 😆 seriously it was actually great fun to do and whiled away a couple of hours.

Can anyone think of a job or task for me for tomorrow? All offers gratefully accepted. These last few days are gonna drag 😉 so I need to find things to do 😊😉

[Buggles94]

Abby - you are far more organised than me! This year I haven't packed any cases till online check in complete Then it is complete panic for several hours! Hope the next few days speed by for you - you will be there so so soon

[Sparksy72]

I love all the treats for Max! I bet it all gets eaten by the time you get home. 😁 I love that you have the suitcases out and the holiday clothes are getting sorted, it’s just so close now! 😆🍾🥂🎉

[Kat11]

Aww I’m so pleased you enjoyed doing the VP. 😂 It’ll be good to have a snap shot of what you’ll be up to each day.

What I did with mine was that any of the things that I’d put on the plan that we didn’t do I deleted them and added what we did instead whilst we were away. A kind of mini diary of the holiday to remind me.

I get the distinct impression you like to keep busy 😂 otherwise I’d suggest just chilling in the garden with a good book. As you probably won’t get much time to relax for the next few weeks!

Kat x

[ClaireNJ]

God that would feed a family of four for a month
He’ll be happy

[Goldia]

Originally Posted by Buggles94

Abby - you are far more organised than me! This year I haven't packed any cases till online check in complete Then it is complete panic for several hours! Hope the next few days speed by for you - you will be there so so soon

See more...

Well I've just told Dave and Kate that they can't wear anything they want to take from now on. So, I'll do a load of washing in the morning to get those bits dry. Then I'll move onto towels and sheets/duvets. That's gonna keep me busy for a little while.

Originally Posted by Sparksy72

I love all the treats for Max! I bet it all gets eaten by the time you get home. 😁 I love that you have the suitcases out and the holiday clothes are getting sorted, it’s just so close now! 😆🍾🥂🎉

See more...

He used to be such a sugar fiend, 2 years ago I'd say you were right. He would devour his easter eggs in one sitting, whereas Kate would take 2 months to eat hers. Nowadays he doesn't eat so much...Still at least I've stocked up and eased my conscience.

Originally Posted by Kat11

Aww I’m so pleased you enjoyed doing the VP. 😂 It’ll be good to have a snap shot of what you’ll be up to each day.

What I did with mine was that any of the things that I’d put on the plan that we didn’t do I deleted them and added what we did instead whilst we were away. A kind of mini diary of the holiday to remind me.

I get the distinct impression you like to keep busy 😂 otherwise I’d suggest just chilling in the garden with a good book. As you probably won’t get much time to relax for the next few weeks!

Kat x

See more...

I saw the genie+ bit of the vp and it made me think people must add to it retrospectively rather than just in advance which is how I've always used it. So yes, you're right, it could be a really nice way of recording what actually happened.

Oh and you're right, I do love reading, but I managed a whole 10 minutes today before I got itchy feet and had to get up.

Relax? Nope, never heard of it! What is this relaxing that you speak of?!?!

Originally Posted by ClaireNJ

God that would feed a family of four for a month
He’ll be happy

See more...

You're right. Kate did say its more than we get for the whole Christmas period for all of us...i guess like I said to her we will get to indulge in all the Florida treats and while it's his choice not to come I just want him to not be left out.
She's not wrong I have lost my mind and little with it all over the last couple of weeks. It's sure gonna be tough to drive away and leave him behind.

[Goldia]

Day -4

I'm going with the idea that travel day is day 0 and worked my way back...it made sense to me!

My brother Ben phoned to see how we were getting on. I explained my neuroses re leaving Max behind... meanwhile Dave decided this was the perfect time to start sorting out his clothes ready for packing.

This ended up being hilarious and all three of us were laughing. Dave started with his travel day outfit. Obviously he needed to try it all on. Of course he's got the slip on shoes, to make it easier at the airport security, but I’m not allowed to call them slip on shoes no idea why or what the proper name is. I think it’s because slip on shoes shirts up connotations of Miami Vice style and that’s not the vibe he’s going for. He then got all of his clothes out and there were 17 T-shirts and nine shirts so I am making him cull some of those.

In other news, I’m on my second load of washing as I wanted get all the towels washed today.

Kate has got barely any clothes which is going to be a bit of pain in the backside. But ho hum, we’re going to have to live with it for now. Both Dave and I are hoping she buys some bits out there as she only has 4 pairs of shorts, 3 of which are denim. Has she never been to Florida in the summer?

I then sorted my clothes out and decided I couldn’t take all 11 pairs of shorts.

So, I’ve left at home the smaller ones that are really only good for the first couple of days of the trip and left in the end of the trip shorts.

Now that we had a perfect storm and frenzy of packing I reminded both Dave and Kate they needed to keep their day 1 and 2 clothes separate so I could put them in their own packing cubes.

Lots of rearranging and about 3 hours later and we have some cases sort of packed. I daresay there will be lots more rearranging tomorrow. We currently have nothing other than shoes and clothes packed, so everything else will need to be sorted out tomorrow or the day after.

It felt like we should reward ourselves for our Herculean effort, so I made us a Grapefruit Margarita and Kate had Fanta, I told her she should brace herself for the fluorescent Fanta she will get I’m Florida, she just shrugged...she’s a bundle of laughs at the mo.

I also wrote instructions for how to use the washing machine and stuck them to the machine. Dave talked Max through stop cocks and boiler stuff and electricity trip switches and locking up and securing the house. We're both reassured that the house will be in safe hands...well kinda, he appeared to take in about 50% of what we said. Fingers crossed nothing goes wrong while we are away.