The Cast:
Me (Im not telling my age): Chief decision maker, planner and organiser extraordinaire
Darren (39): Mr. Grumpy, Marathon Man and Map Reader
Mollie (10): Jekyll & Hyde pre-teen and big girls blouse
Kirsty (4): Scaredy Cat and Drama Queen
Well after 2 years of organising and planning the day has finally arrived. We are up with the larks, well not quite the larks more the alarm clock, and after my cup of tea (I dont function in the mornings before Ive had my cup of tea, just thought Id share that little nugget of useless information with you) I shower and get dressed followed by Darren. The girls are refusing to shower cos they had a bath yesterday and they havent done anything since to get dirty, oh pluhese! after much fuss they both finally have a cats lick at the sink, which passes for washing, and get dressed, children! whod have them!
We decided to have breakfast at the airport so we go through security and find somewhere to eat. I cant remember where but I do remember that the food was okay but the service was awful. We had all finished our breakfast and Darrens still hadnt turned up yet! after much fuss it appeared and poor soul had to gulp it down as the girls were getting fidgety (bored in other words). Finally we asked for our bill, then we asked again, not once, not twice but three times, still no bill, eventually Id had enough so I marched up to the counter and told the man in charge we had a plane to catch today not tomorrow and that if our waitress didnt bring our bill in the next 2 seconds I was leaving £10 on the table and going whether that was enough to cover it or not (for such a meek and mild mannered Scot I can be so forceful when necessary). Anyway the bill came rather promptly after that and then we were on our way.
We are travelling PE this trip, have I mentioned that? I have! oh well doesnt hurt to mention it again in passing! so we dont have to wait too long to board the plane thank goodness as everyone has started queuing for economy and the line is enormous. We go upstairs and find our seats, numbers 73 and 74, we are across the aisle from each other. PE is great, the extra space although not huge does make an enormous difference especially to someone who is not keen on flying and suffers from claustrophobia like myself, Im glad we forked out the extra and would certainly do it again.
We get quickly settled into our seats, somehow I have drawn the short straw and get lumbered with sitting next to Kirsty, I love my baby dearly but not enough to want to sit next to little fidgety pants for a whole 9 hours! so we agree that I will babysit whilst Darren watches a film and then well do a baby swap. Mollie and Kirsty have a glass of orange juice whilst Darren and myself plumb for the champagne, naturally! All is going well when the first, of many, unfortunate incidence occurs, here I should explain, Im a bit of an unfortunate person, I dont consider myself unlucky as I have two beautiful children, we all have our health, good jobs and a roof over our heads so that makes me a very lucky person, so no Im not unlucky just unfortunate, in the sense that even though I join the shortest queue it will be guaranteed to take the longest time, I wait half an hour for a bus, give up and decide to walk only to be overtaken shortly by three, the one day I forget to take my brolly it will pour, Im that sort of unfortunate. So we are sitting comfortably in our seats, in the seats in front is a mum and her teenage daughter, with her husband and other daughter in front of them, a Stewardess comes and has a word with them and a bit of a drama unfolds, eventually this very nice family are asked to vacate their seats as these seats have been double booked (we bumped into them on arrival and they had been upgraded to UC so they were very happy). The seats in front of us are taken over by a boy of about 12 and girl about 15, in front of them is mum and another boy of about 10. Dad is sitting further down the plane. Well they are no sooner sat down and handed their drinks when they start with the sibling squabbling, the outcome of which is that the orange juice gets spilled all over the place, the mum isnt paying a blind bit of attention and leaves it up to the stewardess to clean up and calm them down, hmmm great. Anyway after this little drama the boy who is sitting directly in front of me proceeds to recline his seat, now I know theres extra space but its still not enough to stop me from getting very uncomfortable but he also then starts to bounce up and down on the seat at the same time as slapping his sister and dodging her return blows, well the panic is beginning to set in so Darren decides to have a quiet word with him as the mother is doing absolutely nothing, I dont know what he said but it worked the seat was promptly returned to the upright position, the bouncing stopped and they both quieten down. They behaved themselves after that till the last hour of the flight but enough of them already!
The films start and Kirsty and I had already decided we would watch Finding Nemo, this proved difficult as Kirsty didnt like wearing the headphones, she continued watching but with no sound so it was constantly whats he saying mama whats he doing mama oh no whats happening now mama till eventually mama got fed up and decided enough, so we turned the tvs off and spent sometime doing some drawing, colouring and reading, etc. I know Mollie watched Legally Blonde 2 but I cant remember what film Darren watched. The food turned up, again cant remember what it was, but it was fine and we all, except Kirsty, tucked in. Kirsty hardly touched anything which I put down to excitement of travelling etc but it turned out a bit more than that which will become clearer later. Kirsty then had a nap and I was able to watch Pirates of the Caribbean the whole way through, wasnt sure this was my kind of film but it had Johnny Depp in it so I had to give it a try, well you would for Johnny wouldnt you, Id try anything for Johnny? as it turned out I actually really enjoyed the film so Darren bought me the DVD for Christmas, now I can see Johnny anytime I like!
Before we know it the plane is coming in to land. Being in PE we got off fairly quickly and were soon passing through customs. The immigration chappie had a face on him like a wet weekend in Bognor so we thought we might end up being in trouble (that old catholic guilt thing!) but he turned out to be quite funny, he checked through the passports,
whose Mollie? he asked, Mollie duly stuck her hand up,
whose Kirsty? he asked,
ME shouts out Kirsty,
who said that?
me, me, I did, said kirsty,
who is that that keeps shouting?
ITS ME, IM DOWN HERE,
chappie finally looks over the desk, Oh its you is it?
YES (big sigh)!
but this isnt you in this picture is it? (taken when she was just six months old)
Yes (another big sigh) thats when I was just a baby! now Im a big girl! silly man!
fortunately he didnt take offence at being called a silly man and let us through.
Got through everything else and picked up luggage. Had booked hire car through Airline Network at a very good rate so we head for the queue it wasnt particularly long when we joined it but it took forever, by the time we got seen it was massive, I fully expected to still see some of those people waiting for their car when we dropped ours off 2 weeks later, honestly it was that long! Finally, we are in the car and heading towards ASMo.
We arrived and after a short time at check in we are off to our home for the next 2 weeks. Although we asked for a room in Toy Story or Dalmatians we were told there were none left so we were in Love Bug Building. At first I was quite disappointed about this but after a few days I realised that it had actually worked out better as I think I wouldve found the other two buildings too noisy. After a good nose around and something to eat I was ready for bed but it was way too early so Darren and the girls voted for having a swim while I sat and had a wine, given that they all ended up with a cold, which I did warn them they would but would they listen? nooo! I came off with the better deal.
Once the girls had turned a nice shade of blue we headed back to the room. After a short time watching some cartoons they were both well and truly in the land of nod followed not long after by Darren and myself.
Tomorrow our first full day and were off to breakfast with some princesses at the MK.
Annmarie
Me (Im not telling my age): Chief decision maker, planner and organiser extraordinaire
Darren (39): Mr. Grumpy, Marathon Man and Map Reader
Mollie (10): Jekyll & Hyde pre-teen and big girls blouse
Kirsty (4): Scaredy Cat and Drama Queen
Well after 2 years of organising and planning the day has finally arrived. We are up with the larks, well not quite the larks more the alarm clock, and after my cup of tea (I dont function in the mornings before Ive had my cup of tea, just thought Id share that little nugget of useless information with you) I shower and get dressed followed by Darren. The girls are refusing to shower cos they had a bath yesterday and they havent done anything since to get dirty, oh pluhese! after much fuss they both finally have a cats lick at the sink, which passes for washing, and get dressed, children! whod have them!
We decided to have breakfast at the airport so we go through security and find somewhere to eat. I cant remember where but I do remember that the food was okay but the service was awful. We had all finished our breakfast and Darrens still hadnt turned up yet! after much fuss it appeared and poor soul had to gulp it down as the girls were getting fidgety (bored in other words). Finally we asked for our bill, then we asked again, not once, not twice but three times, still no bill, eventually Id had enough so I marched up to the counter and told the man in charge we had a plane to catch today not tomorrow and that if our waitress didnt bring our bill in the next 2 seconds I was leaving £10 on the table and going whether that was enough to cover it or not (for such a meek and mild mannered Scot I can be so forceful when necessary). Anyway the bill came rather promptly after that and then we were on our way.
We are travelling PE this trip, have I mentioned that? I have! oh well doesnt hurt to mention it again in passing! so we dont have to wait too long to board the plane thank goodness as everyone has started queuing for economy and the line is enormous. We go upstairs and find our seats, numbers 73 and 74, we are across the aisle from each other. PE is great, the extra space although not huge does make an enormous difference especially to someone who is not keen on flying and suffers from claustrophobia like myself, Im glad we forked out the extra and would certainly do it again.
We get quickly settled into our seats, somehow I have drawn the short straw and get lumbered with sitting next to Kirsty, I love my baby dearly but not enough to want to sit next to little fidgety pants for a whole 9 hours! so we agree that I will babysit whilst Darren watches a film and then well do a baby swap. Mollie and Kirsty have a glass of orange juice whilst Darren and myself plumb for the champagne, naturally! All is going well when the first, of many, unfortunate incidence occurs, here I should explain, Im a bit of an unfortunate person, I dont consider myself unlucky as I have two beautiful children, we all have our health, good jobs and a roof over our heads so that makes me a very lucky person, so no Im not unlucky just unfortunate, in the sense that even though I join the shortest queue it will be guaranteed to take the longest time, I wait half an hour for a bus, give up and decide to walk only to be overtaken shortly by three, the one day I forget to take my brolly it will pour, Im that sort of unfortunate. So we are sitting comfortably in our seats, in the seats in front is a mum and her teenage daughter, with her husband and other daughter in front of them, a Stewardess comes and has a word with them and a bit of a drama unfolds, eventually this very nice family are asked to vacate their seats as these seats have been double booked (we bumped into them on arrival and they had been upgraded to UC so they were very happy). The seats in front of us are taken over by a boy of about 12 and girl about 15, in front of them is mum and another boy of about 10. Dad is sitting further down the plane. Well they are no sooner sat down and handed their drinks when they start with the sibling squabbling, the outcome of which is that the orange juice gets spilled all over the place, the mum isnt paying a blind bit of attention and leaves it up to the stewardess to clean up and calm them down, hmmm great. Anyway after this little drama the boy who is sitting directly in front of me proceeds to recline his seat, now I know theres extra space but its still not enough to stop me from getting very uncomfortable but he also then starts to bounce up and down on the seat at the same time as slapping his sister and dodging her return blows, well the panic is beginning to set in so Darren decides to have a quiet word with him as the mother is doing absolutely nothing, I dont know what he said but it worked the seat was promptly returned to the upright position, the bouncing stopped and they both quieten down. They behaved themselves after that till the last hour of the flight but enough of them already!
The films start and Kirsty and I had already decided we would watch Finding Nemo, this proved difficult as Kirsty didnt like wearing the headphones, she continued watching but with no sound so it was constantly whats he saying mama whats he doing mama oh no whats happening now mama till eventually mama got fed up and decided enough, so we turned the tvs off and spent sometime doing some drawing, colouring and reading, etc. I know Mollie watched Legally Blonde 2 but I cant remember what film Darren watched. The food turned up, again cant remember what it was, but it was fine and we all, except Kirsty, tucked in. Kirsty hardly touched anything which I put down to excitement of travelling etc but it turned out a bit more than that which will become clearer later. Kirsty then had a nap and I was able to watch Pirates of the Caribbean the whole way through, wasnt sure this was my kind of film but it had Johnny Depp in it so I had to give it a try, well you would for Johnny wouldnt you, Id try anything for Johnny? as it turned out I actually really enjoyed the film so Darren bought me the DVD for Christmas, now I can see Johnny anytime I like!
Before we know it the plane is coming in to land. Being in PE we got off fairly quickly and were soon passing through customs. The immigration chappie had a face on him like a wet weekend in Bognor so we thought we might end up being in trouble (that old catholic guilt thing!) but he turned out to be quite funny, he checked through the passports,
whose Mollie? he asked, Mollie duly stuck her hand up,
whose Kirsty? he asked,
ME shouts out Kirsty,
who said that?
me, me, I did, said kirsty,
who is that that keeps shouting?
ITS ME, IM DOWN HERE,
chappie finally looks over the desk, Oh its you is it?
YES (big sigh)!
but this isnt you in this picture is it? (taken when she was just six months old)
Yes (another big sigh) thats when I was just a baby! now Im a big girl! silly man!
fortunately he didnt take offence at being called a silly man and let us through.
Got through everything else and picked up luggage. Had booked hire car through Airline Network at a very good rate so we head for the queue it wasnt particularly long when we joined it but it took forever, by the time we got seen it was massive, I fully expected to still see some of those people waiting for their car when we dropped ours off 2 weeks later, honestly it was that long! Finally, we are in the car and heading towards ASMo.
We arrived and after a short time at check in we are off to our home for the next 2 weeks. Although we asked for a room in Toy Story or Dalmatians we were told there were none left so we were in Love Bug Building. At first I was quite disappointed about this but after a few days I realised that it had actually worked out better as I think I wouldve found the other two buildings too noisy. After a good nose around and something to eat I was ready for bed but it was way too early so Darren and the girls voted for having a swim while I sat and had a wine, given that they all ended up with a cold, which I did warn them they would but would they listen? nooo! I came off with the better deal.
Once the girls had turned a nice shade of blue we headed back to the room. After a short time watching some cartoons they were both well and truly in the land of nod followed not long after by Darren and myself.
Tomorrow our first full day and were off to breakfast with some princesses at the MK.
Annmarie
