Hubby was off on the monday so he was able to pack the car for me. I can't believe how much stuff I seemed to be packing. I knew I could buy things there in sterling - it was hardly an issue was it but you know what the shops are like!! Snow yesterday and summer things in the shops!!! We looked as if we were fleeing the country!! Not really helped by AJ's insistance that he took so many toys and Woody seemed to have a thing for taking all his pillows!! Laura had taken a bag and a pillow so we were well and truly loaded up!! As for me - well a small medicine cupboard of drugs and stuff for my long line, just incase, plus my wheatbags, V pillow and memory foam pillow plus clothes definately made it look like we'd been gone a month!!!
It had suddenly occurred to me on sunday that perhaps i ought to let the ferry company know i was taking a small 2 litre oxygen cylinder with me. I've not used it for months but I was worried incase the coldness caused me problems and I didn't want to end up in hospital again!! Of course, the freight office was shut on sunday so the ferry company emailed them for me incase there was a problem. Of course, i heard nothing back so ended up phoning them on the monday and being told just to declare it at the ticket check in.
My sister, her 2 girls and mum arrived in time for a cup of tea before heading off for the port. I did as instructed and told the ticket booth woman that i had a 2 l oxygen cylinder so ended up in a separate queue and a special place on the ferry. This is where I made the first of several mistakes though in this holiday!!!
I was waved on first - I didn't understand the hand signals and so the worker ended up banging on the side of the car and so i stopped to be told I had to put my hazard lights on as I was leading the convoy onto the ferry!! I thought he just meant me to put the lights on - how was i supposed to know that this funny hand movement menat 'hazard lights'. The poor children thought I'd run someone over in the process of getting to the boarding lane. Just don't ask me to play charades or pictionary or lip read - you'd never get anywhere with me!!
The ferry journey was uninspiring but the children liked seeing the sites up the solent they knew.
We knew we had several hours before booking into the caravan site so we went to Godshill Model Village where we did a harder than usual children's quiz. I'm not sure where we went wrong but as there were no prizes it didn't matter really!!! Not sure why they had a plastic kangaroo on a model house roof and a Father Christmas on the wind turbine model though!!! As it was now late afternoon and we hadn't had a proper lunch, we thought we'd try to get something hot to eat. Although there were about 5 eating places there, only 1 was open by then to eat a 'proper' dinner. At first we were the only ones there but we were joined by another family so had to behave ourselves then. I had an omelette with 'duchesse potatoes'. These turned out to be piped mashed potatoes and then baked. Nice but a bit crispy for me at that time.
We then found our way over to the caravan site. It certainly looked nice enough but as we went to find out where the caravans were, we then discovered that our caravans were 3 rows behind each other and not as stated on the booking confirmation form that we needed to be next to each other due to my health!!! After a bit of a heated exchange, the receptionist found 2 chalets next to each other in a matter of minutes. They were definately smaller than a 2 berth caravan but at least we hoped it would be warmer than a caravan.
Actually, it was a bit of swings and roundabouts really. We got full sized single beds and a better double bed but the living room was smaller. You could not get 4 people comfortably on the settee but then as we were 3 adults who sat on the settee and 5 children from 7 - 13 who played in one bedroom, it wasn't really a problem!!! The odd thing was there were no plug sockets in the bedroom so that scuppered the plan of putting the fan heaters actually in there rather than in the doorway!!
It was a really cold night. I'm sure the forecaster said it was minus 4. At 5am, it really felt like it!! Despite the warmer mummy proper sleeping bags the twins had, they had the duvet and then a blanket and i had to turn on the fan heaters we'd bought with us to keep warm plus Laura put on her dressing gown and thermal socks!! I'd gone to bed with the electric wall heater on in the living room full blast but it didn't feel like it. I rewarmed my wheat bags and I think sleeping on my special plastic blow up mattress for my bony secondaries, i warmed the air up in it so kept warmer than the children. Never known AJ to complain of the cold at night before ever. He is usually one of the hottest sweatiest children around!!
In the morning, the children woke up first and went up to their cousins' chalet so i could sleep in a bit. Well, that was the idea but Aj seemed to have different ideas about the speed of getting dressed than Woody so i woke up!! They all went swimming whilst mum and I pottered about. As we then leaving the site about noon, and the weather was warm and sunny we went down to the Needles and Alum Bay. What a tourist trap!!! the children of course loved it but you had to have tokens for every shop and attraction so expensive!!!
We went down on the chair lift to the beach. Poor AJ was quite terrified - I suppose there is very littl holding you in and he is only small. It was a bit of a performance getting on the chair with a walking stick and holding onto his hand but we got on alright. it was the getting off that we made a mess off and nearly had to go round again!! They ended up stopping the mechanism so that AJ and I could climb off - poor people behind us cos they wouldn't have been able to see why they had stopped and must have wondered why they had suddenly stopped!!
It was lovely and warm so mum and sis sat on the beach and i took the children onto the little boat trip around to the Needles. I love being on the water and we weren't all squashed up so i really enjoyed it.
The way back up the chairlift was easier for me and AJ as we had sussed out how to get off properly. I was petrified I would drop my walking stick into the chine below but didn't. Poor mum who was with my sis nearly fell off the chair lift. She hadn't sat on the seat properly and was hanging off the side with my sister clinging onto her for dear life!!
We thought we'd head back to Newport for a takeaway but ended up gtting stuck in the rush hour and got separated with me heading off to Cowes and sis heading off to Ryde. After going all the way round the roundabout, we met up in Ryde. Thank goodness for mobiles or we might never had seen each other till being back at the chalet!!
We found a Wetherspoons which I'd never eaten in before. The place was packed and cold and with 1 waitress trying to cope with too many tables. The food was OK - I think the children enjoyed their meals better than the adults. i ordered sausage and mash with peas and red onion gravy. I thought that would be a damp enough meal for me to cope with. i didn't have any ice in my drink but I still ended up having a spasm adn regurgitating a quarter of my meal into AJ's empty corn of the cob bowl right in the middle table of the packed place. I was quite mortified but everybody just ignored me. We asked for more gravy and was told it came in a portion with the food so there was no extra gravy so I tried eating with a cup of tea but it was still so dry. Eventually, having to explain why i so needed extra moisture, the waitress came up with ordinary gravy - apparently it is only red onion gravy that comes in individual portions.!!! I hate doing the cancer card thing but it was either that or go hungry and ask for a refund.
Laura wanted the chocolate adult torte for her pudding which she said she would eat slowly. If that was slowly, I hate to think what quickly means!! I had treacle sponge with plenty of custard so i was much happier.
Then home to the chalet. It warmed up quicker this time as i found that I only had the heater on half power last night - being ditzey again!!!
It is now 2am as I've been really bad and carried on taking the steroids after the chemo last week so that i would have the power and energy to keep going all day. Trouble is, it keeps me going half the night as well and tomorrow i need to really to cut back completely so will probably have a dopey day tomorrow.
thanks to my dear friend who made this holiday possible for us - it meant so much to have this holiday together.