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!
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!