The First Week

Eric started reception class last week, it really is the end of an era for us. I actually wanted to call this blog "end of an era" but I already used that title on a blog post I wrote years ago. I wrote it when I decided that I wouldn't wear bikini's anymore. An update on that... an airbnb guest from Italy left a bikini in our house. I probably should have posted it back to her but instead I wear it. I don't feel great about it body wise or morally, but I guess the bikini thing wasn't the end of an era after all. Just like when Percy started in Reception and I thought that was the end of an era, then 6 months later I was spending all day every day homeschooling him. 

So anyway, Eric has been very excited to join his big brother in school, he said "I have been waiting for this for about 2 million days." I said, "how many days do you think are in a year Eric?" and he said "5?" The school do this staggered start thing, which is very annoying for pretty much everyone. The first week that Percy was back Eric wasn't. Then Eric was in for 2 hours a day in the afternoons, then this week he's in 8:55-1:30 and then this coming Monday is his first whole day. He was so desperate to go but by day 3 he said, "oh school again, I've been for soooo many days." I think it's just hitting him that he has to go 5 days a week for 3 times his life time, and that's quite a lot.

So far he seems to have done crafts and a lot of playing in the sandpit and theres a few boys names that he mentions that he plays with. He's coped with it really well considering he's one of the youngest and possibly the smallest in the class.

I remember being really emotional about Percy's first day. It felt like a really big deal that I wasn't going to see him so much anymore and he was going to make all these new friends and like he was going to lose his innocence. I didn't have a great experience of primary school - I was dyslexic but didn't find out till I was 16 so I always found reading and writing really hard work, and also I joined a new school in year 2 and struggled to fit in. But so far Percy doesn't seem to have had any of the issues with reading and writing that I had and he loves school. Hopefully we won't ruin that all for him when we move him to France! I thought I would be really emotional about Eric starting because it's such a life changing thing to have them both in 5 days a week and I don't really want him to grow up, I miss him being tiny. Not like a baby, I don't miss those days at all, but I really miss two year old Eric. 

The staggered start made it less of a big deal though, and then it turned out I was actually working as a covid tester on that day, so Dan took him.  I felt no emotion taking him in for day 2. I'm weird like that sometimes, I can be really emotional thinking about something that might happen. I remember thinking about the day when we would get a house, in the days where we were sort of homeless, and then when we actually got given the keys and it was just me and a tiny Percy who didn't realise this was significant, it felt like that was not the time for emotion. And then my head quickly moves to all the things we need to do and maybe that pushes out the emotion.

It's been quite a different experience for me - Eric starting school compared to Percy. This time I've made Facebook friends with some parents who have kids starting in the same class, we've had a few play dates and theres a class whatsapp group and I think everyone is enjoying getting to know each other. Whereas with Percy, I knew two other parents from his class and I didn't really make new friends. We've been to loads of whole class parties and I'll obviously say "hi' to other parents but I actually think it would be a bit weird for them if I started trying to make friends now.

Today Eric came out of school saying "mummy I got a sticker for bumping my head!" We asked how he did it he said he didn't remember. Not a great sign. I also find it hard not to read the "wow" and "terrific" without sarcasm.

Both boys have already been to class birthday parties this term. Percy has had so many invites, but one less than I thought. He came out of school one day saying he was invited to this girl's party, but we couldn't find the invite anywhere. I thought it must have gone missing so I messaged a friend who had the invite and they sent me a photo of the invite. yesterday I messaged the Dad of this girl to say "thanks very much but we unfortunately can't make it." He said "thanks for letting me know" Then Percy tells me that this girl said he was actually never invited, and he just saw an invite and thought he was invited. EMBARRASSING.

Thanks for reading x

Sailing with kids

On Sunday my extended family all got back from a sailing holiday around the Greek islands, we've all shared beautiful photos and it looks absolutely idyllic. We were very lucky to go, there were some amazing moments, but before everyone feels jealous I feel a bit of a duty to share a bit of the reality of what 8 adults 2 kids and a baby living on 2 small boats in a pandemic is actually like.

How we got into sailing:

me in 1993

My Dad has always been a big sailing fan, he was in a sailing club as a kid and learnt on small dinghies. When he was a student he helped his rich uncle sail from Guernsey to Malta. Rich people generally love to owe yachts but don't know how to sail them.My Dad tested all of his many girlfriends out on boats and my mum passed the test. 

My Dad aged 21

Women who unsuccessfully auditioned for the role of my mum

I went sailing in the womb and all through my childhood, but because my Dad was such a good sailor I didn't pick up that much. I did my RYA (royal yachting association) level 1 when I was about 12 that was very basic sailing on a topper, which is a small boat that is easy to capsize, but it's like fine to capsize it - you actually have to capsize it and then make it the right way round again as part of RYA level 1.

1987 when I was bald and my Dad had hair

1995 mum stayed at home with baby Sarah and me and Jo and a load of men sailed to the channel islands. I did that pose on every single picture of that holiday.

2005

Dad regularly hired boats from near Southhampton with us and a few friends and sailed to France or the Channel Islands and back in a long weekend. It would be like a 14 hour over night sail, go out to a French restaurant for tea and then sail back. I loved it. I love adventures, I really like the rocking boat thing, I like roller coasters and stuff and it's cool to get somewhere for free just by the power of wind.. Some people we took did not like rocking so much. I remember sailing to France on the day of my last GCSE with a school friend Duncan where everyone except me and Dad were sick, and I remember Duncan shouting "pass me the saucepan, I'm going to be sick."

When we were planning our big trip cycling to the middle east it seemed the obvious thing to ask Dad for a lift across the channel, we packed our folding bikes onto the boat in Southampton and 4 days later we got dropped off on the river Seine and began the cycle to Paris.

The Channel is a difficult bit of sea to sail in. It's a busy shipping lane, it's never really warm and like most seas it has tides which you really have to think about or you might run aground. The Mediterranean on the other hand is normally warm and doesn't have tides because it's really like a huge lake.

In the year 2000 we went on our first flotilla holiday (that's when you sail with a load of boats), and the kind we went on is when you have a lead boat that tells you what to do and fixes stuff if it goes wrong. So each morning you meet up in a outdoor cafe in Greece or Croatia and the 3 people on the lead boat tell you 'today we're going to sail to this island, it will take 3 hours if you do 6 knots. Steer on the compass point 160 degrees and watch out for this rock here.' And then you all go there. The lead boat helps you come into the harbour by telling you exactly when to drop your anchor and being there for you to throw your ropes to, and then you all jump in the sea for a nice swim and then go out for a meal. It's the easiest way to sail, you can even do it as a complete beginner. I did it twice as a teenager but this holiday was the first time I did it as a parent. It was pretty hard work. We did have a great time and I'm vey grateful to have had the chance to go, the boys absolutely loved it but here are 4 things that make sailing with kids in a pandemic not the most relaxing holiday:

1) Space

This is the layout of the boat.

and this is the reality of putting 6 people in that space:

We intended the boys to be in the front, me and Dan to be one side, and Sarah and Luke the other, but we quickly realised the boys can not share a little bed. The first night it was very warm, quite noisy and a bit rocky and they were just rolling into each other and poking each other, so we had to separate them and so the rest of the week Dan slept with Percy and I slept with Eric in a triangle shaped bed. The worst shape for a bed. Especially when sheets are famously rectangular. I'd carefully put Eric to sleep on one side only to find him completely in the middle and I basically had to work out what shape to sleep in after he had gone to sleep. It was reminiscent of the time we hired a camper van and Dan slept in a "L" shape around Eric for a whole week.

2) Covid

Greece is on the amber list, which means you can go there if you jump through some very specific hoops but if you accidentally jump through the wrong hoops you will be fined. So we had to take this special test that you have to pay for, it was vey similar to the free ones except you had to pay for this specific one and take it 72 hours before flying back. So on that morning everyone got out their red and white covid test box and we got our green and white one. Yep we had the wrong one, and if we didn't get hold of the right one soon we would get fined £500 per adult. So that was a tad stressful. My sister Jo managed to accidentally capture the moment we realised this. Luckily the sailing holiday crew came to the rescue and we managed to buy a test off them and take it just in time.

3) Down time

In a normal day at home, even in the summer holidays, we get a bit of a break from the kids when they watch T.V. for 45 mins to an hour a day and then they go to bed at 7 so we get our evenings to ourselves. And they're getting better at just playing together, so it's not like when they were babies and they needed watching the whole time. But on a boat there's no T.V., the only screen time was the etch-a-sketch (which is really fun by they way, I got into it). But yeah no real space to play. And we had communal meals out at 8ish and so they boys were not going to bed until about 9:30 most nights. 

Lakka harbour on Paxos in case it wasn't obvious

4) Actual sailing

I love sailing, but I'm used to having my Dad around who knows what he's doing. Because we were on 2 boats and my Dad is only one person... you do the maths. We were on the non-dad boat and my sister Sarah had been picked as lead skipper, purely because she didn't have children. It was quite a lot of pressure on Sarah on the first day to go to all the briefings and learn all the stuff, but she did a great job. 

We didn't really do much actual sailing at all because we were only doing short hops. Dan is also not a great fan of sailing because he gets very seasick. On our first ever sail together across the Channel he was sick about 10 times. He also didn't know that when you sail it's normal to be on an angle, so you would normally sit on the side of the boat that is right up in the air looking down. So the whole time he was in a constant state of fear thinking we were going to capsize, but we were wizzing along loving it. This time he was much better because it was shorter bits and he took anti-seasickness tablets but he still felt rough.

all worth it for this though

When we got home Percy lay out on the floor like a star fish and said it's so good to lie down without mummy's suitcase on my feet. For at least a day afterwards we were all gently swaying. I had the best nights sleep I love sleeping on a rectangle.