We had a plan, Child one and the Italian were to arrive at my home at nine thirty in the morning on Friday, where they would both work until 4, whereupon we would pack the car and prepare everything for the 6am departure.
I had planned to do my packing on Thursday afternoon so it really all went wrong when my lovely B offered me a haircut which I obviously accepted, This meant I hadn’t packed when I went to bed on Thursday night and was unprepared for the email I received from Eurotunnel telling me I needed a Covid test before I left for France. I dutifully booked three tests for 11am the following morning.
Sunny was booked into the groomers at 9, I took him, expecting the girls to be there when I got home. The car the girls had rented was late being collected, so I changed the time for the test. The paperwork for the dog was ready at the vet at 8am. The girls forgot to collect it, realised half way up the M4 and had to go back to London. The Italian had a meeting which meant they wouldn’t be able to leave before 1pm thus missing their Covid tests, after 45 minutes on hold I had given up trying to change them again. I rushed to Sainsbury’s to buy food for the trip (forgetting most of it) and drove to Swindon to take my test. The girls booked different tests for later.
Baby F was coming at 3 to give our Chilean the chance to check out a nursery and the moment he arrived the groomer phoned to say Sunny was ready. I had taken out the car seat and our baby wasn’t feeling very well. I tucked him under one arm and carried the seat back to the car to collect the dog. By the time I got home I had lost the impetus to organise anything so I went ahead and packed the car with the bedding and food, bravely assisted by my sister. The girls arrived and we had to pretend that their dog hadn’t been in the rental car so Child one had to hide around the corner. They left the paperwork for the dog in the rental car.
They remembered just in time.
We then had to drive to Reading for additional covid tests by which time it was dark. Waiting for the traffic lights to change a lady in a delightful white Mercedes decided to take the opportunity drive into the back of Vanley.
So here we are, not properly packed, no covid tests, white car attached to Vanley’s arse, causing a massive traffic jam in Newbury and supposed to leave in less than 12 hours.
Luckily Vanley has a tow bar, a big chunk of metal which caused the front of the white car to collapse and not actually touch my lovely van at all. We exchanged insurance details, my Sister took photos, looked at the driver sternly and we left her in the middle of the road, she even tried to cause further damage by driving into the side Vanley but the Italian stopped her.
We headed to Reading, running late and two Covid tests were taken and were negative. We were so hungry we ate drive through McDonalds…….
We leave at 6 am and I have only driven Vanley overseas twice, each time for less than an hour and on familiar roads.
We drove home, chucked the cases in the car and went to bed.