little white truths

Hullo! This will be a short post because we've been up all night and of course we're on holidays so I won't be spending too much time on my computer.

Yesterday we woke at 4am to get to the airport on time for an early flight. The flight wasn't meant to be that early, but it was changed (boo Jetstar) so we were up two hours earlier than anticipated.

That might have been fine, but the flight itself was a complete nightmare. Both kids were shocking, and thank god we had my parents with us or things could have been even worse.

You know how sometimes you're on a flight and a couple of kids scream the whole way? That was us. Every parent dreads being responsible for the noise-makers, and it's happened to most parents who've made the mistake of getting on a plane with young kids. Ach.

Indeed, there are reasons why we haven't travelled for almost three years now, and that's one of them.

So we got here and we're staying in some nice apartments right up on the hill. We have our own kitchen and laundry facilities, which of course makes things easier and also cheaper - it's always an expensive exercise to have to eat meals out the whole time you're away.

Sadly, last night was shocking. The people in the apartment above us held a function (even though guests aren't meant to do that here) so people were coming and going at all hours, running up and down the stairs and talking loudly in the hallway (you know how these joints echo in the stairwells? ARGH), and then there were the chairs scratching over our heads, the loud voices, the laughing, the toilet flushing every two minutes so it sounded like a waterfall running past my ear...

I called security on them twice. I had to: it was affecting us all. Security did go to see them both times (I could hear everything) but it didn't have any useful effect. So at midnight, I went to see them myself.

They were quiet after that. Turns out an irate mother in her pajamas is infinitely more effective than a big guy in a security jacket. Lesson learned.

But then of course I was wired out of my head from being awake too long, and as I was finally nodding off to sleep at around one, my son woke up and wouldn't stop screaming so he was in bed with me until four, when I hand-balled him to my husband.

What a shit experience. My daughter slept in the end. The rest of us didn't. 

Who holds a large party in hotel apartments when you know you have other guests beside you, below you and around you? Who invites truckloads of people over on a Thursday night to get wasted loudly out on the balcony, so all the noise is projected into the central courtyard over which everyone's balcony looks? They do apparently. And they were in their fifties: they weren't a bunch of young 'uns who could have pleaded ignorance.

Moving on.

This morning we took the kids into the ocean and the waves were reasonable (good for body-boarding), plus they had an ice cream afterwards - but funnily enough, I don't think either of them was thrilled about these experiences!

There was a pretty strong current in the water that my daughter wasn't sure about, and my son definitely wasn't happy in the sea so he didn't last long. My daughter stayed in but she was hanging on for dear life so we may stick to the pool for now. They've both done swimming classes since a young age but I guess waves and currents like that are another story.

And perhaps the ice cream was too sweet. 

The best-laid plans...

That's all from me for now. I just wanted to let you know that we arrived and that I do plan to get a few posts out while we're here, but of course that may rely on noisy neighbours.

Hope all's well with you, and speak soon x