Holidays are coming

Or looming depending on how you look at it.

I'm still not sure if I'm looking forward to this holiday or not, there's no doubt it couldn't have come at a worse time.

For a start Chloe isn't well at the minute. It's only a dose of the cold but it still means all hands are on deck trying to get it cleared up before we leave in two weeks.

I said back at the start of the year that the whole point of the holiday was to take Chloe away for a couple of weeks. My mum has been promising to take her away on holiday since she was three and my dad (the sensible one) kept putting it off because she was just too young to be away from us for more than a night or two ... but then my dad was diagnosed with cancer, had most of his bowel removed and was eventually given the all clear. Today you would never know to look at him how close a call he had last year, he's as fit and healthy as he ever was, even more so to be honest. But he doesn't put things off until later any more, so when the idea of a holiday came up before Christmas it was booked to include Chloe.

Of course then the realisation dawned that taking Chloe away on holiday for two weeks meant spending two whole weeks with Chloe:) She's not a bad kid, in fact after some of the play dates we've had this year I'd say she's a complete dream but she is constantly on the go. You need a lot of energy to keep up with her.

And so the booking was changed so that her own mum (that would be me folks) could go and play babysitter.

I'm not ungrateful, I know from all this it sounds like I am but really I'm not. They're spending a lot of money, and it all comes from a good place. They know we've had a crap year and think a holiday will help and it probably would, if Robert were coming too. Instead he gets to stay at home and carry on having a crap year while I have a crap time 1700 miles away worrying about him.

Plus I'm 30 years old and having a holiday entirely paid for by mummy and daddy so I feel rotten about that too.

Plus it means taking Chloe out of school for two weeks at the end of term meaning that she'll miss most of the fun end of term stuff including a couple of school trips.

Plus, business wise, if I have a busy time it's as Summer approaches and I'll have to close. I can't exactly ask Robert to handle custom orders, which is the vast majority of what I do these days.

And we're selling the house and need to have a good clear out and tidy up to make it more presentable so that's another thing landed on Robert while I'm away.

Does it sound like I'm feeling a bit guilty? It does, doesn't it?