Going, going...

This year we've been away an unusual number of times: visiting Daughter 2 in London, meeting up with the extended family in the Lake District, visiting my aunt in Norfolk, house-swapping in York and now we're about to go to, and round, Switzerland on a train.

This is all very nice and fortunate but it's a bit exhausting - having five times to leave the house all pristine for the catsitters, with updated instructions about the idiosyncrasies of the house and the cat, and to pack at the same time. But nowadays I also have to leave my babies behind! The other holidays have all been short ones but this time we'll be away for two and a half weeks. I'm going to see them tomorrow; on Thursday we'll have to clean and pack; on Friday we're off to Daughter 2's for the weekend; and then we're off on our train journey on Monday. We return to London two weeks on Monday and then get back here on the Tuesday so that's nearly three weeks without the little ones. How will I survive?

I have a list of things to do tomorrow and Thursday:

Phone Grace about Zumba.
See grandchildren.
Lay out clean bedding so that the catsitters can change their bedding mid-holiday.
Take stuff to charity shop.
Update instructions.
Organise cards for various family events.
Plant plants I bought at Breezy Knees.
Clean house.
Pack.

Actually, that's not as bad as I thought it would be.

I've already crossed off:

Cut grass (actually Mr L did that).
Buy pants and socks (I didn't have enough to last out).
Buy jacket that actually keeps out the rain (at least, let's hope it does).
Do ironing.
Go to Morag's.

Then of course there's the extra thing that I remembered earlier today while having coffee with friends and told myself to add to the list when I got home.

If only I could remember what it was... .

We will be going along a railway line which did this on August 13. The travel company says it got mended within three days. I'm not convinced that three days was enough to mend it sufficiently. So if this is the last blog post, you'll  know why... .