Oh I do like to be beside the seaside..........

OK, so after many deliberations with various friends and family, the baby Mad Dogs are being pulled out of school at May half term. We intend to set off to explore Cornwall and the West Country for a couple of weeks with two old school friends and their children staying in a gorgeous cottage by the sea.

We plan lots of surfing, picnics, visits to Padstow and Rick Steins to consume as much seafood as possible. There is much of Britain that we would still like the girls to see, so we shall take the opportunity to do so. Sans crowds, queuing the entire length of the M5 and all those naughty boys and girls from the Public schools who descend on Cornwall for their 'kiss me quick' version of a holiday. In the meantime I'm giving those girls a proper summer break.

Oh I do think Blighty looks her best in June! Strawberries, Pimms, mid-summer night, sailing and Wimbledon (I feel an early morning queue coming on for tickets). Poor Mr Mad Dog will be sitting with sweat dripping off his nose in India while his family swan around the country looking in rock-pools. However, I, have to pack the house, tie all the legal stuff up here and look after 3 children plus Gus the mad dog single handed. In addition, it could lash with rain, hail or worse for the whole month and an awful lot of monopoly get played. So I think we will be pegging rather level.

Mr Mad dog will return in June and we shall say our so-longs, farewells, auf wiedersehen's and goodbyes prior to a final jaunt in Europe en famille. We then plan to fly out to Chennai/Madras in early-mid July for the shock and awe process of initiation ready in time for School term beginning 4th August. So we have a plan. Well, we do today, 5th March 2008. Tomorrow? Who knows.

There seems to be no right time to go. But at least the girls would have had a summer break and get a chance to visit all their relatives in Scotland before departure.

I have also found a new home for my moggie Josie who, is simply too old to go globetrotting so will move in with my old school chum and her young family sometime soon in Windsor. A big weight off my mind. We will miss our mog terribly but my friends are real animal lovers and we know she will live out the rest of her days quite purrrfectly....