And We're Back In Business Again......

Well, now that I'm finally back in this space, my dear neglected blog, where I can write whatever I want, I really don't know what to write.

It's been so long, too long.

I guess I could write about the trials and tribulations of the past months, the illness, anxiety and stress. But that's all in the past, I want to look forward and to focus on the positive.

Who wants to read about depressing stuff like that? Certainly not me!

So, focusing on the positive, what have we been up to these past few months, I hear you all ask?

Well, lets just have a little look, shall we?

Picnics in the back garden, making the most of the last of the warm Autumn days before Winter extends her cold fingers around our home and garden.

My two biggest boys took part in the ANZAC Day celebrations as part of their Army Cadet unit. I'm so proud of them.

Not least for braving a very chilly autumn morning in thin cotton shirts.

(Not really fair that I was nice and warm in a coat and woollen scarf, was it?)


Someone finally got a big boy bed!

At first he was so overwhelmed he burst into tears at the sight of it. Then once Daddy showed him how much fun jumping on the bed and pretending to sleep to trick Mama was, he loved it.

And even though he's been sleeping in the big boy bed for months now, he still doesn't get out of it when he wakes up. I guess it hasn't yet occurred to him.

Thank goodness.

Though the yelling of "Mummy I want to get up NOW!" gets a little tedious at 6am every morning.


We've made numerous masking tape racetracks for Roary and other assorted vehicles to race upon. Giving Mama a much needed 5 minutes quiet time to work/tidy/doze off. (It varies on any given day).


Another favourite game is stealing Daddy's boots to show us his impression of Jake the Peg by Rolf Harris. We then find discarded boots all over the house.

(Yes, my husband owns multiple pairs of Union Jack Doc Martins)

(Don't even ask!)


And lastly, there has been lots of this going on.

Shmushy face Charlie cuddles are simply the best.

That's it for now folks. Hope you enjoyed the picture heavy update.

I'm off for some more of those shmushy face cuddles.

I'm here.... just.

Drowning....... gulp..... going under ..........a mountain of work. (Make that a mountain range worth.)

Send help.

Or margaritas.

Either will do right now.

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Sorry for the recent absenteeism. Hope to be back soon, but have so much work on right now I just can't cope. Not happy.

What? Life with no TV?

A week ago a man came and took our tv away. All 97kg of it.

It was rushed away for emergency care. Prognosis was not good, it might not make it. It may even end up in tv heaven.

It's barely 4 years old.

But that is most definitely a lifetime in tv world, it seems.

And with our tv's exit, so began our journey of life with no tv.

The first few nights were well occupied getting Charlie to bed by 8pm (ish), getting some work done, then sitting down to read a book.

A book! In the evening? Fancy that!

With so much spare time I finished the book in 2 days.

I then twiddled my thumbs and wondered what to do next. It was then that I realised I was tired. Very, very tired.

Without the distraction of tv to numb my mind, and put me in a catatonic state, I realised I was tired. So I went to bed.

Only to lay awake for hours. And hours.

And hours.

Frustration would be an understatement at that point.

From what I've written you'd imagine that I was a tv junkie, right? But actually, no. I don't watch tv during the day at all, and only sit down about 9pm with a cup of tea to watch an hour or so of our favourite recorded shows. We don't watch for the sake of it, we record only tv that we actually want to watch.

But going without even that small amount of tv watching, was dearly felt. After a week I realised that there are times where I enjoy just sitting there being entertained and informed, to sit and watch, drink my tea, snack on a bit of chocolate perhaps (just a little bit) and do absolutely nothing after a hectic, long and sometimes stressful day.

So last night we caved in. We set up the laptop in the bedroom, settled in with cups of tea and a box of valentines day chocolate and watched a movie.

It was bliss. We realised what we'd been missing all week. So nice to just sit and watch and relax.

Today Del rang the tv repair place.

We'll get out tv back next week.

Then perhaps all will be right with the world again.

Stress-less or Stress-free?

I apologise for no Fashionable & Fabulous Friday post yesterday. Life has been too..... hectic, distracting and unfullfilling lately.

I've noticed my tension increasing, the clench of my jaw tightening, that tell tale sign of stress within me.

I don't want to feel like this.

Surely there is more to life than the hamster wheel of work, house, kids and commitments?

I want to stress less. No. Scratch that. I want to be stress free.

I found myself needing something, something that's been missing. Then I realised.

I haven't meditated in such a long time.

I've let the distractions of the mundane duties of life... well, I've let them distract me from the moments that make me smile and relax.

So I took a quiet moment to go back to The Meditation Society of Australia website, and restart the free meditation course they offer.



Within minutes the tension had eased.

Eased but not yet gone. I think that will take a little more time and consistency. But it's a start.

The lesson I did was titled 'The Meaning of Life' and was just so fitting for how I've been feeling lately. Here's a short extract :

Wisdom is simple; it is knowledge that craves complexity.

One of the main sources of stress is not having clear life directions or goals. So often we are caught by the urgent things in our lives – our material responsibilities and day-to-day struggles – that they create their own vicious cycle within our minds. This is what we may know as the 'tension loop’.

The 'tension loop' confuses meaning with movement.

Just like a computer, the mind processes data from many sources. The more programs you run in a computer, the less time it can spend on each program before having to go and process a little more of the next. The time the computer spends switching from program to program makes the computer run slower and slower until it may break down or stop.

The mind works in the same way. Only our programs that run around in circles using up the minds resources are our fears, anxieties, doubts and worries. As we run out of resources, the mind (unlike a computer) speeds up. It becomes so involved by the number of things that it has to do that it spends more and more of its time switching from one to the other, drawing us further into the superficial and further away from the analytical and obviously the intuitive or meditative levels. We find that we can’t concentrate for very long, we’re flighty and scattered and it is self-compounding. This 'tension loop' can be permanently transformed only through calming the mind and allowing a deepening of our awareness. We need to identify the negative thought patterns in our lives and transform them into positives. For example, worries are perhaps the most insidious of all negative thought patterns as within the mind they are like a program that loops or is never completed. They use resources, create stress, and are happiest when nothing is ever resolved or an ‘end-point’ reached.

In the end, however, the real problem is not so much that we may be stressed or sick or having a nervous breakdown, the real problem is that we have confused ‘busy-ness’ with our life meaning. Meaningful goals become less and less clearly identified.

If like me you've felt stressed and overwhelmed by the demands of an everyday, modern life, then please feel free to take a quick look at the website and maybe even listen to one of the short, free meditations they offer.

Trust me, you'll feel better for it.

Everyone loves the Zoo, don't they?

A little while ago, Del's parent came to visit for the weekend.

All the boys love a visit from Grandma and Grandad.

Charlie especially loves his Grandad who is not afraid to get down and be silly with him. I could make a comment about being on the same wavelength as a two year old, but I love my Father in Law too much to say that!

When they come to visit we try to get out and do something fun and this time it was a trip to the zoo.

Unfortunately what we didn't realise was how ill Charlie actually was. Just the day before he'd seemed to be perking up so off we went to the zoo.

Little did we know what was to follow.

Weather wise it was the perfect day, sun shining, the animals happily sunning themselves in their enclosures and all that. But Charlie soon got tired.

And grumpy.

And so Mama was tired.

And also grumpy.

But we persevered.

"Look at that giraffe, Charlie. Look, look".

Charlie looks down at the ground and refuses to be bothered to look up at the giraffe.



"Look here's a rhino, Charlie, wow!"

No response but to take a drink and stretch his arms out to me as I was the only one he would let carry him for longer than two minutes.



We trailed around the zoo trying to maintain rapidly failing enthusiasm.



Whose great idea was it to come to the zoo?

Oh yeah. Mine.

The orang utan mother with the little baby tucked under her arm was just gorgeous. Watching her climb the pole with the baby clinging onto her side looked perilous, but I'm sure she knew what she was doing.



Can you see the baby peeking out from under her right arm?

We stopped for a bite to eat in the hopes of lifting morale. It seemed to work, thank goodness.



I think out of everyone, Kaiden and Corey enjoyed themselves the most.



Charlie perked up a bit and played with his Grandad and chased a few errant birds around.

I thought I would try to take a nice photo of my notoriously camera hating husband.



No smiling from him.

I had to be sneaky to get a smiley shot, while he watched Charlie playing.....



Kaiden wanted to then take a photo of Del and I which was a fantatic idea since we don't have many together photos as usually it's one of us taking the shots.



Again, no smiling from Del.

But then when you least expect it, he does this :



I love my crazy husband!

After our little break, we passed the Merry Go Round, which Charlie has seen on tv before but never in real life.



He really wanted to go on it, but we were all ready to leave by this time.

Next time, my darling, I promise!

On the way out, Charlie discovered a new friend. At first he thought it was real, then when he realised it was stone, he proceeded to climb all over it.



Corey watching out for Charlie like a good big brother and making sure he doesn't lose his balance and fall.



And so after a tiring and not so successful outing we headed home.



The end.

Contented Days

As I sit at our kitchen bench, with Charlie on my lap, tapping this out on my laptop and listening to the spring rain gently falling, I feel content.

Very, very overwhelmingly tired but also content.

Recent events have made me stop and notice all the things I have to be thankful for. Uppermost in my mind right now is thankfulness that Charlie has come through his terrible ordeal with glandular fever and a horrific reaction to penicillin. I know that the recovery period can be long but I am thankful he is in the recovery phase.


The rash resulting from a reaction to amoxicillin. This rash turned out to be worse than the glandular fever - causing horrific itching, pain and bruising all over his body.

It has been such a harrowing experience for all of us these last 6 weeks.When seeing the doctor the other day for a check up, he said that he was glad to see us come in, as he had been very concerned and made the comment that "not knowing if Charlie was lying in hospital still or dead had been difficult". That made me stop still. Dead? That certainly helps put things into perspective.

But we are on the other side now, we can move on with our lives, and this period will become just a terrible memory of Charlie's childhood.


Repeated bathing in Pinetarsol (made from pine tree sap) helped relieve the itching temporarily. But many sleepless nights were had. His skin become so sensitive that to cuddle him caused pain and bruising.

I'm a firm believer that the things that happen in our lives happen for a reason. And this recent experience is no different. It can sometimes take a little thought to figure out the reason.

Did it open a new door in our life? Or close one?

Did it confirm we are on the right path, or the wrong one?

Did it make us stronger, softer, more patient?

Or perhaps we can just learn and grow from it.

After thinking on things as I held my ill little boy in my arms, as he itched and cried, said he was in pain, I could take from this trying time, that it's just confirming my need to learn to focus only on the now.

I've blogged about this before, my need to learn this lesson. Focussing on the now, on what is happening right this second, will ensure I don't borrow stress from what is to come, or from what has been.

I want to be able to enjoy every second of this life, to feel contentment and peace. No more rushing and stress.

But, like most people, my life is busy and rushed. And quite often stressed. So I forget and fall back into old habits.

I'm a work in progress, I guess.

But I'm ok with that. I'm overwhelmingly happy with my life, my family, my home. That's not to say I won't have bad days. But I'm content enough within myself to get through them.

And so I think I'm now ready to come back into the blogging world again, sharing little tidbits of my eccentric and wonderful life. Some bits interesting, some funny, some deep and meaningful.

And quite a few superficial and trivial ones. (Fashionable Friday, anyone?)

The House of Plague and Pestilence

These last few weeks have been a blur. No, not the sort of blur I live my life in usually - if only it had been.

This was a blur, a haze, a waking dream, or nightmare, of illness and sleep deprivation.

It's been something no amount of coffee could fix. It's been that bad.

This house has continued to be the house of plague and pestilence.

Charlie has been sick for 3 weeks now, most of it with cold like symptoms resulting in a clingy whiny 2 year old. Made worse that he was unable to sleep at night as he would jerk violently awake every time he tried to take a breathe through his nose but ended up making a horrible snorting type noise that left him gasping for breathe.

Charlie being unable to sleep = mummy being unable to sleep.

But I could live with that. Temporarily.

Then I got sick too. That wasn't so good.

Then I got better. Then I got sick again.

Then Del got sick.

Charlie continued to be sick.

Life still had to go on. Though not quite as efficiently as usual.

Del and I are recovering, it seems to be a very slow process getting any semblance of energy back, no matter how many cups of coffee and sugar hits I have.

So whilst we recovered we watched Charlie get worse. And worse.

He developed a cough, one worthy of a pack a day smoker. The doctor (who I really didn't like) couldn't detect anything wrong in Charlie's lungs (???) but she did hear a heart murmur. Great. Something else to check out later. She patted him on the head (more like yanked him by the arm) and sent us on our way.

Over the next few days Charlie continued to worsen. High high fevers that wouldn't come down even with medication and he was having trouble breathing through his blocked nose.

It the midst of high fevers I noticed that scariest thing yet.

Well, two things.

1. The glands under his ears were so swollen they were disfiguring his face. (They measured an inch wide and two inches long!)

2. A RASH!

OMG! A rash. And fevers. Swollen glands. Irritability. Trouble breathing. OMG!

Time to give myself a stern talking to. Calm down now. I'm sure it's nothing. I'm just over reacting. Deep breath. Where's the phone? Doctor, I need to see you NOW.

The doctor (a different doctor who I much preferred) umm'd and ahh'd for a while, and was completely baffled.

It could be just a nasty virus.

It might even be glandular fever.

It has similar symptoms to Kawasaki Disease (OMG. Please no).

So off we drove calmly, oh alright, not so calmly to the Children's Hospital in the city, me continuing to talk myself into not freaking out. Thankfully when the triage nurse took one look at Charlie she prioritised us and we got straight in. Being prioritised is good as you get straight in, but it sure doesn't help the stress levels and shoots to pieces the 'stay calm, it's nothing' mantra I'd been using.

Lets skip straight to the diagnosis part, shall we? I know it's the part I wanted to hear immediately.

The diagnosis was... are you ready.....

..... they didn't know.

Good old health system. The best they could say was that it could be a nasty virus or it could be glandular fever.

And worst of all..... THERE WAS NOTHING THEY COULD DO.

Nothing they could do to help my darling boy, as he lay lethargic in my arms, his little body burning with fever as he struggled to breathe.But I was thankful that I knew he would recover.

After discussion we decided not to do the blood test that would confirm if it was glandular fever, as Charlie was so ill and it would be a traumatic thing to hold him down to take blood.

Traumatic for him and for me too I would imagine.

And even if they confirm it is glandular fever there is nothing that can be done for it. Just time and rest.

Two days after returning home, Charlie has definitely perked up. The fever has gone, the nose is clear, the glands are going down and he seems to be a little more like himself. In a subdued, clingy and sad to see sort of way.

I think he still has a way to go till he's back to his old self, it was the most horrible thing to see him so ill, but it's also terrible to see him so... so... I don't even know how to say it.... so not like himself I guess. I'm more thankful than I've ever been that he is over the worst of this virus, but the recovery could takes weeks or months till he regains his old level of high octane fueled energy again, and that's how we'll know if it is glandular fever.

Kaiden and Corey took him on his first ever expedition 'trick or treating' tonight for Halloween that isn't actually Halloween (a whole other post on this topic is coming I think!). I wasn't sure if him going out was even a good idea but it's something that all three of them had planned for weeks now, so I agreed to a brief outing. And although by all accounts he seemed to enjoy it all, he wasn't his usual self and all he wanted was cuddles with me when he returned.

It's definitely one day at a time around here right now.

I really didn't set out to write a long post about Charlie's illness, I had intended to mention more to explain the lack of activity around here over the last few weeks, but it morphed into a full blown, second by second account instead.

I'm not writing this for sympathy, or to make something big and terrible out of something small and not that bad.

I think I needed to just get it all out, purge all the worry that had built up inside me, whilst on the outside I had to keep it all together and stay strong blah blah blah. The happy face belied the worry and stress, the self blame and sleep deprivation, I have 3 children who need me, I can't crumble. But boy, does that take it's toll.

I'm ready now for a big long, uninterrupted sleep. Rest and recuperation.

But unfortunately I seem to have developed insomnia.

When in a funk....

Last night I was in a funk.

Just ask my poor long suffering husband, I'm sure he would more than confirm it. But being the wonderful husband he is, he said and did all the right things.

I was just in one of those moods where everything in life seems difficult and the thought of a different life is extremely alluring. So we talked of life changes and dreams we would like to fulfill.

I'm pleased to say that our dreams mesh nicely together and are achievable. Gosh it would be terrible if our dreams clashed. Say for example he wanted to be a cowboy in a big hat riding off into the sunset and I wanted to be a world famous supermodel. I just don't see that working.

(Disclaimer : Del doesn't really want to be a cowboy, though personally I think he'd look great in a pair of chaps. And I would like to have a go at being a world famous supermodel, but I would need to grow at least a foot taller and become stunningly beautiful first.)

After our deep and meaningful chat, I did what I usually do when I feel unsettled. I turned to my cards.

Specifically, my Goddess Guidance Oracle Cards.

I use these gorgeous cards regularly, as they are quick and easy to use, and I just love the images upon them. So I shuffled the cards for a while, getting the feel for them, then took a deep breathe, asked for guidance, and cut the deck.

And the lady Aeracura (Air-uh-cure-uh) was revealed.




Aeracura is a Celtic goddess who acted as Earth Mother, a fairy queen and a bridge between earthly life and the hereafter. How appropriate for this time of year! Her message is that I am ready for a new beginning, ready to blossom and grow, but I can't rush the process. Take the time to learn, gather ideas and plan. Soon enough I'll get the signal that it's time for action.

I could hardly believe how appropriate her message was. Del and I had just come to the conclusion that any major changes to our lives would have to wait a few years till Kaiden had finished high school, but in the mean time we would research, plot and plan.

I just love it when I get confirmation that we're on the right path.

And just like that, my funk was over and I was smiling.

Hi Internet!

So it's been a while I know.

But at this point I'm just thankful that I'm still here. Well, that my laptop is still here, to be more precise.

Last week my poor overworked laptop was not well. Not well at all.

A nasty horrible virus had taken hold and paralysed it.

Nothing would open.

Zip. Nada. Zilch.

Except......

A box that kept coming up saying "Enter your full name, address and credit card details here to purchase amazing software that guarantees to get rid of that nasty virus for you".

Ummm, right. I don't think so.

Luckily my computer guy finally managed to get out here yesterday, and play doctor and miracle worker at the same time. He healed my laptop in a little under two hours.

Yay! Thanks fantastic computer guy!

Downside to getting it fixed though, is almost a week's worth of backlogged work to catch up on.

Aaaaarrgghhh! I'm too scared to even look how much work is waiting for me. Maybe I'll look at it in the morning. No sense stressing myself before bed is there now? (Procrastinate? Who me?).

Needless to say, posts may be light for a little while till I finish slaving away trying to complete the humongous list of work waiting for me.

You might here from me before the end of the year.

Mummy Guilt

I have to admit, I have yet to achieve the elusive perfect balance in my life that I so desperately seek.

Some days I'm the perfect wife, mother and homemaker (well, in my mind anyway!) but drop the ball on the work front. The task list gets longer and deadlines loom.

Then other days, I achieve more than I would ever expect I could from a work point of view, to the detriment of my home and family. Laundry room overflows with dirty washing and dinner is toasted sandwiches.

I just can't seem to balance the scales to achieve what I want from both sides at the same time.

Am I being unrealistic?

Maybe.

But that doesn't stop the guilt. Self imposed guilt, which in a way makes it worse as you can't really ignore it.

Don't get me wrong, I don't constantly berate myself, or push myself to exhaustion trying to achieve my version of the perfect balance. But there, in the deep recesses of my mind, is the desire to be all that I wish to be, and the guilt that comes when I don't manage to achieve it.

I believe that most mother's feel a sort of guilt. In one version or another.

Can I provide enough for my kids? Do I spend enough time with my children? Do I work too much? Am I feeding them properly? Are they getting the best education? Am I too soft or too strict? and on and on and on.

Each is situation is different but the mummy guilt is there.

Not long ago my lovely soul sister and mother of three gorgeous children, emailed me asking advice on how to balance spending enough time with each of her children (not that I'm anywhere near being in a position to give advice on this situation!). Given the fact that her youngest was 3 months old and was taking up most of her time as baby's do, this situation was only to be expected but my friend felt guilty at not spending as much time as she would like with her other two children.

In my experience, this is what anyone with more than one child has been through, myself included, and luckily it's only temporary, because as the youngest gets older, she can join in more games with her older siblings. Though I must say, one on one time with each child can be hard to achieve once you have three. We just have to do the best we can.

I often find myself getting ready to go to bed after an evening busy with dinner, clean up and then work, and I go to check on my three sleeping boys, only to realise that since dinner time I haven't actually seen the older two, who put themselves to bed whilst I worked. It makes me feel bad, that I'm not there spending more time with them.

Of course, rationally I know that I need to work to provide for us and that Charlie needs more of my time to assist him physically (ie feeding, bathing etc) whilst the older two don't. But what about emotional need? Even a 12 and 14 year old need their mother's time on an emotional level.

And this takes me back to the beginning of of this post - trying to achieve a balance between home life and work. As I work from home, I don't have clear cut work and home times, so they tend to overlap a lot, which leads to the guilt I feel when I feel I let the balance swing too far one way or the other.

My solution?

Just do the best I can in any given moment.

And always remember that life is constantly changing, so this current situation will pass. It helps me get through the hard days.

I'd love to hear comments from other mums, to know whether I'm correct in presuming that most mothers have their own version of mummy guilt.

It's always nice to know you're the only one struggling with a particular problem.

No-one likes to feel like they're on their own.

I have something to say.

Hello. My name is Leiani and I'm a bad mother.


My mugshot for the Bad Mothers Hall of Fame


Well, sometimes I'm a great mother.

But now is not one of those times.

Right now I'm a bad mother. With a capital B.

I think I've just ruined my middles son's chances for greatness in this life. And I feel terrible.

I don't know what's happened to me lately, I seem to be dropping the ball, so to speak. A recent example is my inability to tell time.

Of course I'm great at planning to be organised and recently professed to be the Organisation Queen.

But as the saying goes 'pride comes before the fall'. And in this case it's true, as I'm having a bit of a problem following through on all my grand organisation plans lately.

Corey is due to start high school in January and his chosen school was asking for applications to be submitted for their Academic Extension program. It's basically identifying all the smarty pants students and putting them into specialised classes where they will be challenged a bit more.

And my boy definitely fits the smart pants criteria, I'm proud to say. His favourite subject is Maths, and Corey can often be found helping his brother Kaiden with his maths homework.

FOR FUN.

Oh, and Kaiden is 3 grades ahead of Corey.

Corey also reads at a high level and is already in PEAC (Primary Extension and Challenge - basically the primary school version of the high school program).

So back to my failings as a mother.

I picked up the application from the school along with the application for the Specialist Soccer program (Corey is not only exceptionally brainy but is also a talented soccer player) , I gave the forms a quick once over looking at the submission date and then put them away in the paper work drawer in my kitchen to fill in later.

That was the fatal mistake.

I left them there, thinking I had ages to complete them, and I didn't write the dates on my calendar or in my diary as I should have.

I think you can guess what's coming.

I took the forms out this morning to fill them in, thinking 'oh I have another few weeks to get them in, I'm so organised and wonderful getting it done now etc etc'.

I looked at the submission date on the Soccer application - 21 May.

No problem.

I looked at the submission date on the Academic application - 1 April.

Oh, sh*t. (I don't often swear but this was warranted I believe)

I may have just messed up my son's future. He needs to be challenged in school. He needs to have this extra work, it will open up so many windows of opportunity he might otherwise not get. OMG what have I done?

All I can do is phone the school on Tuesday (Monday is a public holiday here) and beg them to accept a late application.

My dilemma is, do I tell them the truth? That I'm a disorganised mother and didn't look at the date properly.

Or do I make up a little white lie, and say that we only just got the forms, or only just decided that this is the school he wanted or some other plausible reason why we are late submitting the forms?

Please help me plan what to do.

And I promise I'll try to follow the plan properly this time.

One of Those Days.....

Ever had one of those days where you wish you hadn't bothered?

Of course you have. Everyone has.

Well for us, last Sunday was one of those days.

It all started when I had to take Corey to soccer training. An annoying enough thing at 8.30am on a Sundday morning, when I should be sipping coffee in my pajamas.

Halfway to the location, as we approached the turn onto the freeway, uh oh..... accident ahead.

The turn onto the freeway was closed, and there was only one to go. And it was the wrong way.

Of course.

It was 20 minutes out of our way, and by this time, after thinking over my options to the background noise of Charlie working himself up into a tired tantrum, I had more than had enough already. And it was only 9am.

Making an executive decision, I gave Corey the day off training and we headed home to put Charlie down for his morning sleep.

After lunch I thought I'd surprise the two older boys with an excursion to the Go Kart track. To say they were excited would be an understatement.

After entering the address into the car GPS, off we went with two boys bursting with anticipation.

We easily found the road we needed, but halfway down it turned into a dirt track. Hmmm.... now what?

After checking the paper based road map that I keep for emergency use (thank goodness) we realised we were on the right road, but unfortunately at the wrong side of that dirt track. Do we turn around and take the long way or head on into the wilderness?

My memory is a little foggy, but err.... someone decided that we might as well try the dirt track as it didn't 'look too bad'.

You guessed it. Famous last words.

The track rapidly deteriorated, rocks littering the path, growing larger with every bend. Charlie took an instant dislike to the bumpiness and didn't hesitate to let us know. At the top of his voice.

Then the sand. Oh the sand.

The car was drifting all over the place with the chance of getting bogged a real possibility. Thank goodness for Del's past army driver training.

Time for another executive decision. TURN AROUND. NOW!

Eventually after taking the long route, we arrive at the Go Kart track. Kids bristling with excitement, they found helmets and waited for their session.

The start of the session went fine, but at the first corner it all went downhill fast. Literally. One of the go karts would not turn left, resulting in multiple crashes off the side of the track over the next 15 mins.

Damage to body = bumps and bruises.

Damage to teenage pride = immense.

We were implored to head home. Which we did. Immediately.

After much discussion we decided that given all that had happened perhaps we should of all just spent the day at home.

Next time we plan to go Ten Pin Bowling. Nothing can go wrong witht that, can it?

I'll keep you posted.