When you’re a kid going on holiday means pulling out the suitcase, finding an old, crusty sock from last holidays, and packing your clothes. I remember my brother, aged seven, packing his case to go and stay with Granny for a week … He’d packed one tshirt, three pairs of shorts, and two socks!
Anyway, we’re going on holiday for a fortnight from this weekend – apologies in advance for a quiet blog – and I’ve suddenly realised there’s a lot more to going on holiday as an adult than I thought …
- Who is going to feed the cat? Now Princess Penny is quite spoilt unfortunately, and needs feeding twice a day, and the cat flap locked overnight. Two weeks of feeding twice a day is a big ask, so I rounded up a handful of volunteers and created a rota. Then of course we had to make sure there’s enough cat food, cat litter, treats …
- Who’s going to look after Otis? The answer is obvious – his chauffeur. But with Otis’s recent foot problems his chauffeur needs prepping; and the first aid kit restocked. Plus the fact that strangles is rife at the moment, he needs briefing on the symptoms and protocol. Again, I had to stock up on feed, and get the rugs out that may be needed – it could be medium weight, light weight, or fly rug weather over the next fortnight.
- The lawn needs mowing. It was done on Easter weekend, and we won’t have time to do it before we go, so it’s going to be a jungle when we get back. And we’re not mowing it straight away after our holiday after a friend did the same and mowed over his flip-flopped toes, causing a dash to hospital. So I did some gardening last weekend.
- A fortnight is a long time for the houseplants, so someone needs to water them. Then of course are the flowers in the garden. There are a few new ones, and some pots so hopefully we don’t have a drought or frost so they survive…
- Make sure the neighbours know we’re away and will put the bins out.
- Will all the parcels arrive in time? Or more to the point, don’t order anything online the week before you go away!
- Are any bills due? If there are direct debits will they go through alright?
- Money needs to be exchanged so we have spending money on holiday.
- Run food stocks low. But not too low as you need food when you arrive home. But you don’t want to come home to a fridge full of mouldy carrots.
- Unplug appliances. A family I know recently had a devastating house fire, so I will be making sure everything except the fridge is unplugged.
- Make sure you’ve done the washing. You don’t want a pile of smelly clothes hanging around, and you need to have clothes to wear when you get home! Never leave clothes in the washing machine damp either …
- Most importantly – packing bags without packing the kitchen sink!
I’ll be glad to get on the plane!
The Rubber Curry Comb 
There’s so much more work to do for vacations as an adult… as a kid all you have to do is get excited! lol
Exactly! There’s also things like making sure your work diary is in order because in a fortnight I’ll never remember who paid and how and when their next lesson is!