Guest blog from Max (11)

Greece.

In two weeks I will be heading south. As the weather gets worse here it will get better for me. I will be going for six months which is very excessive I thought but my parents are agreed. It’s mainly for my step dad’s work but there are other reasons too. My first thought was I would fall behind on work and not know anyone and get totally lost. But I am confident that it will be great fun. The journey will take almost a week alone. We will be getting there by van which has been converted to a people carrier. I will be getting a tutor for maths and chemistry mostly and my grandpa is a maths and science teacher and he’s coming round sometime too. That’s basically all I know so far.

Making and unmaking lists

It started quite some time ago, this writing of lists.

With just over two weeks to go before we load up and head off, the lists are reaching critical phase. Sam, my husband, is a little worried that I have a book of lists. More than that, I have a contents page for my book of lists.

Things that seemed important two months ago and are still not crossed off - extensive strimming around the croft, sorting through all the children's books - are less so now. Just bung the books in a box and be done with it. That kind of thing can wait until a rainy day next autumn. Other stuff like signing off work commitments, customising the van for our trip and getting hold of the right books for the boys' home schooling are right at the top of the (meticulously numbered) lists.

Sam has a different approach. He makes a daily list on a 5cm x 5cm post-it. No more than four or five items at a time. It works for him, but I can't operate like that.

Michael (13) and Max (11) aren't making lists, but they have their own anxieties. Will we fall behind with school work? (Not if I can find you a maths tutor who understands how to divide fractions.) Will we get bored on a Greek island living 500m from the beach? (Silly question, ask me something else.) Do they do Christmas in Greece? (Yes, but it's not such a big deal over there.)

I have no idea what the little ones, Flora (3 in a couple of weeks) and Hector (2 in November) will make of it all. Take it one day at a time, I guess.

So once everything has been crossed off the lists, or is deemed no longer relevant, we'll leave Lairg on the 8th October and head for Sam's parents' place in Dumfries and Galloway. We'll fit in a couple of work meetings with folk based down there, then head off to catch the Harwich - Hook of Holland overnight ferry and begin our journey through The Netherlands, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. From there, it's a four-hour drive to Venice and a two-day ferry journey to Patras in Greece. Then a hop, skip and a jump to Athens and on to the island of Tinos, arriving sometime around the end of October. 

Now that reminds me. There's something I need to add to my lists: teabags. Have you ever bought a cup of tea in Greece? And did you get a mug with some boiling water and a flaccid teabag on a string floating in there? But will Scottish Blend teabags work in Greek water? Maybe this needs a new category. Maybe a sub-category?

And so it goes on.