Sunday, July 19, 2009

Polly's Holiday From Hell...?!

So, after a three week break I am back! Well and truly back to the world of blogging. While I haven't posted here on my Peri-wrinkl'e & Piercing's! I have been busy elsewhere (oh, yes I have!)

As well as being rested and relaxed, as in very, our holiday in the north west of Ireland has done us all the world of good. Not only is my skin, especially that on my knees(?) a lovely shade of light brown, my legs, arms, neck and face is now almost fully recovered from the onslaught of the midgies, horseflies and virtually every other kind of wild life imaginable.

Ah yes, we had a grand time. We survived the rain, floods, attacks, injuries, insults, etc and at the end of it we got home in one piece.

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BB looking out at the North Atlantic Ocean from Mallin Head

1. The rain - yes, I had foolishly booked us into a new campsite this year. I did not want to spend all fourteen days beside the Atlantic Ocean, so I booked three nights in a village just west of Gweedore. Less than a week before this Gweedore had experienced heavy down pour, flash foods and all that this entails but lightening doesn't strike in the same place twice. Right?
2. Floods - escaping the beach with moments to spare the heavens opened. Unfortunately they decided not to call time and didn't close. We drove to Dungloe and discovered a nice little takeaway, whose name escapes me, that produced proper fresh, battered fish - shame about the frozen chips which accompanied it! After we enjoyed our finger food DG drove us all back to our luxury accomodation, whereby we sheltered from the rain in the car for roughly half an hour. Eventually there was a slight reduction in the volume descending upon us allowing only the most intrepid to venture hurriedly towards the tent...
3. Attacks - "Oh My God...!" Six inches of brown, brackish water below sea level stood the boys room. It's contents ranging between drenched, damp, barely damp and miraculously dry. Action Mommy sprang into action without another word! Simply taking the brand spanking new spare groundsheet from its bag and spreading it out inside Mommy & Daddy's room, much to the amazement of DG. Now we had a second layer of waterproof protection on which to bed down.Sometime around here words became harsh and unkind as other members of the party began to panic...
4. Injuries - not withstanding the fact that the previous day I had ventured onto the back of a
rather stout mechanised bull and promptly dismounted in an equally un-lady like fashion, or the fact that I'd fallen asleep on the afore mentioned beach in a curled up ball over my ruc sac I just got on with it! No problem was too big or small for Action Mommy. Sadly, this entailed inviting the two boys to
share our sleeping accomodation while theirs dried out.This of course meant that both they and their rubber mats/airbeds, sleeping bags, and themselves all had to squeeze into our room along with Gypsophillus the dog! No problem, after all it is an eight man tent which means that our
room is intended to hold four fully grown adults. Hmmm! This obviously does not take into account the fact that LB sleeps like the proverbial starfish - with his knee in the small of his Mum's back.

5. Insults - not only did this result in broken sleep; my being squashed against the side wall of the tent invited further disastrous downpour INSIDE the nice warm, dry tent! Actually, no this is not what happened. Two things: a) I woke with back pain and stiffness which still is proving problematic nearly three weeks later and b) later that morning LB announced that he'd discovered two nasty looking ticks on his stomach!

All I can say is that despite all this, and a very nearly broken foot courtesy of the mechanical bull this was NOT the holiday from hell! We had a great time and survived all kinds of adversity, proving that we are made of hardy stuff.

My only regret is that at the time of the great flood, which was quickly dealt with I was unable to locate my camera and get some pictures taken. After all, who would believe it? While all of the above is absolutely true and accurate much of this is written in such a way as to obtain maximum dramatic effect, why not drop in another day and find out what we really got up to...?

1 comment:

Lorna said...

Certainly sounds eventful :-)