Been a while quiet, so time to explain
With the little angel out of here some furious online checking and we were booked on a ferry.
With the house roofless, well it should be anyway we opted for open wallet surgery at a campsite we have done before with the children Ty Nadan Arzano.
Some calculations and I worked out that for a few dollars more we could stay in a chalet saving lugging loads of tentage, coookerage and sleeping baggage with us.
Not quite right on the last count as yet more was saved by not having cabins on either of the overnight legs on the ferry.
So with lots of time to spare we headed Portsmouthwards and stopped over to see the students mum. She has of course done one of her return from the dead tricks and, whilst she is not entering the marathon this year she seems a lot better.
Off to Portsmouth being seriously economical which had to change when we hit traffic after which the speed went up drastically.
On to the Bretagne our luck was in and we had a really good spot on deck 3 - early off in the morning then. Next a serious assault on the restaurant, Gwion and Paul, the now ex foster child so i can use his name here, launched a serious assault on the entrees. Paul used to be a real picky eater so it was great to see him trying everything. The D's had a real go at everything too which makes it all easier it doesn't reduce the bill but it means you don't begrudge paying.
All this good stuff was followed by one of the worst nights of sleep ever. Sleeping on broken glass in a glass crushing plant would have been nicer than sleeping on the floor in the Bretagne. After a few hours I gave up on the idea of sleep, got coffee, well as soon as the cafeteria opened, and waited for the boat to make land.
This was a less than auspicious start and to make it even more fun I took a wrong turn which wasn't so bad as the route we took once the student took up navigation, whilst less obvious, when looking at the map was actually a good road on which we made good progress.
Arriving at the camp site we could have used the chalet being ready which of course it wasn't. The kids were dispatched to the pool and we retired to the bar. An hour or too late and just before i got all rude and annoyed, the chalet was handed over to us.
Tea was soon dealt with and everyone was in bed by 9 with a long lie in next day.
Of course I had more than a bit of catching up to do. I was reading 3 books at the same time to get my paper up to speed whilst reading portfolios for the post graduate qualification courses that i was second marking.
There was also the small matter of writing the paper which I made a huge start on by taking bottles of 1664 from the fridge and transferring them to the recycle bin....
This project took some time and by the time it finished a form of a paper was down in a form that I could re write later.
Of course, we had booked this campsite on the basis that we had no house with a roof to stay in.
A trip out to see reveled a very much roofed house and a total lack of builder. Could have stayed at the house and saved ourselves a big pile of money!!
The kids though have always loved Ty Nadan and they were notable every day by their absence.
One of the things about these places though is their intimacy, in a throw everyone in together sort of way. People who pass a few hours a day together are thrown into 24/7 contact they are also linked in an expectation that this is supposed to "enjoy" this and it's all "fun".
So.... There were the parents in pursuit of the 8 year old who had totally lost the plot. The woman in tears at about 8 AM being comforted by a random stranger, the brothers who engaged in an impressive brawl in the middle of the camp site with their younger sister playing "United Nations".
This holiday thing can be a long way from fun.
Ours though went seriously OK and we found ourselves far too soon (yea right) on our way back to the North Coast.
We lunched in a fantastic Creperie in Huelgoat and a family favourite restaurant in Roscoff.
The trip back was pretty quiet. The Armorique is a far better sleeping on the deck ship than the Bretagne.
The trip home was quiet, - they were all asleep....
Today, Branwen, (did I mention her A level results, A* A and B?) passed her driving test. So she is set up to go to Aberystwyth. Of course that wasn;t the issue. We had to pick her up after her test dropping Mr Tick off so she could drive home might not have been her preferred introduction to driving alone.
The reason she went home alone is that the social work student took advantage of me being in university to go and do some talking.
She is no longer a social work student, she is doing social policy.
I think this Summer has taught us (again) that we are a very strong outcome focused team and that social workers are very caught up in what they do.
We do strong effective social work, we are not social workers.
We like it that way.
R
With the little angel out of here some furious online checking and we were booked on a ferry.
With the house roofless, well it should be anyway we opted for open wallet surgery at a campsite we have done before with the children Ty Nadan Arzano.
Some calculations and I worked out that for a few dollars more we could stay in a chalet saving lugging loads of tentage, coookerage and sleeping baggage with us.
Not quite right on the last count as yet more was saved by not having cabins on either of the overnight legs on the ferry.
So with lots of time to spare we headed Portsmouthwards and stopped over to see the students mum. She has of course done one of her return from the dead tricks and, whilst she is not entering the marathon this year she seems a lot better.
Off to Portsmouth being seriously economical which had to change when we hit traffic after which the speed went up drastically.
On to the Bretagne our luck was in and we had a really good spot on deck 3 - early off in the morning then. Next a serious assault on the restaurant, Gwion and Paul, the now ex foster child so i can use his name here, launched a serious assault on the entrees. Paul used to be a real picky eater so it was great to see him trying everything. The D's had a real go at everything too which makes it all easier it doesn't reduce the bill but it means you don't begrudge paying.
All this good stuff was followed by one of the worst nights of sleep ever. Sleeping on broken glass in a glass crushing plant would have been nicer than sleeping on the floor in the Bretagne. After a few hours I gave up on the idea of sleep, got coffee, well as soon as the cafeteria opened, and waited for the boat to make land.
This was a less than auspicious start and to make it even more fun I took a wrong turn which wasn't so bad as the route we took once the student took up navigation, whilst less obvious, when looking at the map was actually a good road on which we made good progress.
Arriving at the camp site we could have used the chalet being ready which of course it wasn't. The kids were dispatched to the pool and we retired to the bar. An hour or too late and just before i got all rude and annoyed, the chalet was handed over to us.
Tea was soon dealt with and everyone was in bed by 9 with a long lie in next day.
Of course I had more than a bit of catching up to do. I was reading 3 books at the same time to get my paper up to speed whilst reading portfolios for the post graduate qualification courses that i was second marking.
There was also the small matter of writing the paper which I made a huge start on by taking bottles of 1664 from the fridge and transferring them to the recycle bin....
This project took some time and by the time it finished a form of a paper was down in a form that I could re write later.
Of course, we had booked this campsite on the basis that we had no house with a roof to stay in.
A trip out to see reveled a very much roofed house and a total lack of builder. Could have stayed at the house and saved ourselves a big pile of money!!
The kids though have always loved Ty Nadan and they were notable every day by their absence.
One of the things about these places though is their intimacy, in a throw everyone in together sort of way. People who pass a few hours a day together are thrown into 24/7 contact they are also linked in an expectation that this is supposed to "enjoy" this and it's all "fun".
So.... There were the parents in pursuit of the 8 year old who had totally lost the plot. The woman in tears at about 8 AM being comforted by a random stranger, the brothers who engaged in an impressive brawl in the middle of the camp site with their younger sister playing "United Nations".
This holiday thing can be a long way from fun.
Ours though went seriously OK and we found ourselves far too soon (yea right) on our way back to the North Coast.
We lunched in a fantastic Creperie in Huelgoat and a family favourite restaurant in Roscoff.
The trip back was pretty quiet. The Armorique is a far better sleeping on the deck ship than the Bretagne.
The trip home was quiet, - they were all asleep....
Today, Branwen, (did I mention her A level results, A* A and B?) passed her driving test. So she is set up to go to Aberystwyth. Of course that wasn;t the issue. We had to pick her up after her test dropping Mr Tick off so she could drive home might not have been her preferred introduction to driving alone.
The reason she went home alone is that the social work student took advantage of me being in university to go and do some talking.
She is no longer a social work student, she is doing social policy.
I think this Summer has taught us (again) that we are a very strong outcome focused team and that social workers are very caught up in what they do.
We do strong effective social work, we are not social workers.
We like it that way.
R
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2 comments:
A much needed pause and good outcomes, congratulations all round
Good to read you are all well. Sounds like you had a really nice break away.
WOW Branwen well done on those A level and driving test results. I am sure your Mum and Dad must be very proud of you.
Love to all of you
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