Venice tomorrow - woo hoo!

The Husband and I are going to Venice tomorrow. I’m soooo excited.

Allotment Junkie is here, ready to take the reins. The freezer is full, both with the stuff I pre-cooked so she wouldn’t have to bother, and also with the stuff she brought with her, pre-cooked, so she wouldn’t have to bother. I love my mum.

I’ve checked my passport. And the tickets. And done online check-in.

I have done 2 loads of washing, explained 3 times how to get to the swimming pool for Saturday morning lessons, the complicated arrangements regarding how Pink likes which light left on and for how long when she goes to sleep at night, and how to operate Skype. I have reiterated the strict rules about not letting the dog (a) sleep on the sofa, nor (b) eat the chicken’s poo, not letting Pink watch any of the Harry Potter films on pain of having to deal with a basilisk-induced nightmare, and not letting Blue get away without doing at least some trumpet practise. I have over-engineered the various combinations of house keys to allow for the arrival of my father at the same time as school pick up. And I checked my passport.

I have produced some fairy cakes for Pink to take to school tomorrow in lieu of sport relief mufti money (not as ‘yummy’ as it might sound – believe it or not I had some un-iced mini fairy cakes stashed in the back of the freezer from last book day when she went as the Tiger Who Came to Tea – complete with ‘buns’), and sorted out piles of change with which they can enter the sport relief mile at school, buy cakes, and (Blue only) pay for his mufti – Blue did not wish to do anything as uncool as take cakes “I’ll just take the money, if that’s OK”.

I have packed- hand baggage only – and sweated over my total lack of ‘capsule wardrobe’. Still, I have dragged my most stylish items of clothing out of my drawers (for ‘most stylish’ read things that didn’t come from the charity shop) and I’m hoping I might just about pass muster – just need to polish my boots. I checked my passport. I have managed to remove the last, now chipped application of nail polish from a few weeks ago (in honour of the Sanctuary trip, I bothered my arse to slap a fresh coat over the last fading chips left over from the summer. Yes – the summer. You read that right. I am that rubbish). The Husband has sterilised a couple of small bottles so I can decant my contact lens solution from a bigger container and thus benefit from travelling hand baggage.

I didn’t have enough of the right kind of pasta to cook one meal for all of us, so we had macaroni peas (already tried and tested from Veg Everyday) and a new one – mushroom risoniotto. I couldn’t get Pink to try it “But I don’t like cooked mushrooms...” but Blue enjoyed it as much as the macaroni. I’d had to cadge a half-used pack of orzo pasta from a friend who’d tried the recipe previously. I offered to pay for it, but she just said “Have it” with feeling. I suspect it wasn’t going to feature in her repertoire again but we liked it and I will cook it again (with more garlic probably, and when Pink’s not around).Quite enjoyed having the combination of the two dishes.

Now, I need re-paint my toes (it might be warm, and I have packed my Birkenstocks – travel in hope, that’s my motto), find Miss Garnet’s Angel, by Sally Vickers – a lovely book, and I really want to read it while I’m in Venice,

and check I’ve got my passport...