The last day of our holiday with the grandchildren has arrived, and I don’t know how anybody gets the time to write blogs and novels when looking after children at the same time; I take my hat off to them!  As you might have noticed, blogs have been a bit sparse lately.  Sam is down on the beach with the girls and the kayak, and I finally have five minutes to log in and type.

However, as far as I’m concerned, the time we’ve had with the girls has been more important.  The weather (apart from Sunday) has been glorious and we wanted to give them some nice memories to look back on, and hopefully we’ve succeeded.  We’ve been swimming in the sea, cycling along seafronts and disused railway paths, kayaking, colouring and chatting, and there was also a hovercraft ride to visit the Spinnaker Tower and the shopping centre at Gunwharf Quays.

It occurred to me today that blogging in my opinion is relatively unimportant in the grand scheme of things.  After all, does anybody really care if it’s been a week since I last blogged? The answer to that is a resounding ‘no’, and over this last 7 days I have come to realise that family definitely comes first and blogging not even a close second.  A blog cannot take the place of a hug from your grandkids, and nor should it.  A fifth one is due next week, and my cup is running over in the grandchildren department.  Yeah, it’s tiring wearing the little buggers out, but I’m always mindful of the fact that people remember you by the way you make them feel.  I’m tired and it’ll be a relief to hand them back to their parents for sure, but I can honestly say that this week has been rather fun.

The long drive home to  Suffolk is nearly upon us.  The girls have spent all their money and so has Nanny and Grandad.  Perhaps next week there might be a few more blogs, but if there aren’t, then hey,  they’ll happen when they happen, although I did schedule a couple of blogs before I left home last week.

I was one of the first ones in the little shop on site this morning.  The shop owner looked at me and asked me where my mask was.  Whoops – I forgot that today it’s mandatory to wear one in shops, banks, post offices, and shopping centres.  I had to go back to the van and find one.  I suppose I’ll get used to wearing masks in time, but it sure seems strange at the moment.  Sam’s list of things to remember before he goes out has become longer.  It used to be phone, keys and wallet, and now it’s phone, keys, wallet, mask and sanitiser.  Whoop-de-doo-dah.  Welcome to the new normal…