This week, we have been at Church Farm in Pagham, for the second week of our summer holiday. We came here at May half term so it felt very comfortable and familiar to be returning this summer. Its a site we really like and this week our caravan was stunning, brand new with all the best spec, whilst also feeling very warm and homely.

We continued with the normal holiday activities, lots of swimming, both indoor and out, target shooting, pottery, walks, bingo (!) early morning runs etc.. The weather, bar one day was very good and there were lots of mornings sitting around the outdoor pool dipping in and out, drying out on the sunbed and reading a good book. I had a very high book count this holiday, averaging I think one every couple of days. Of course, there was parkrun tourism on Saturday, with a visit to the Bognor course, an enjoyable lap course through a lovely park. We had also been to Bognor one afternoon to play crazy golf, my son’s and my little challenge. It was a really fun and traditional course and he won, meaning he now leads the grand crazy golf competition, 5 – 3.

After the May holiday and our first visit to Chichester, we had planned a return visit for a girls’ shopping trip. We did this on the Thursday which started as a really wet day, a morning when you are awoken by the mesmerising sound of rain on the caravan roof. The children had been booked in to the local water park in the morning, so as they were in wet suits, the rain didn’t really affect our plans. Fortunately, during the morning it stopped so that by the time we started shopping the sun was out again. We had a lovely little mooch around Chichester but bought very little, only a pair of school shoes (oh the stress) The shops still had a lot of summer stock and we were both looking for more autumnal clothes. We had promised ourselves a special lunch so enjoyed tapas and a girlie chat, life’s simple pleasures.

The holiday was two happy weeks of family time. It has been a strange year and a very stressful and busy end to my job at the start of August, so it was nice to be away and family focused before my new job started. One of the big advantages of my new job is that my holidays now match exactly to those of the children (previously 3 weeks of the 13 were not the same) and I am so excited for the full 6 weeks holiday in 2023, the summer of my 50th!