Anyone who knows me personally will know that I'm a complete control freak. It should therefore come as no surprise that this applies particularly to holidays. I like to know where I'm going, when I'm going, how I'm getting there and what we'll be doing, and every holiday we have is organised predominantly, if not exclusively, by me. Lee's boss has found it funny that Lee asks for leave so far ahead, and that I have the year's holidays mapped out already, but that's partly what comes from working as a teacher (and having kids in school): you basically know years in advance when you're going to have holiday time (that'll be Christmas, Easter, summer and half-terms). You also know that school holidays are the busiest (and most expensive) times of year, and the sooner you book up the better, in terms of both availability and cost.
So I like to book ahead. I like to shop around to find the best prices. I like to check Trip Advisor reviews to find out whether it's somewhere worth staying. I like to find out travel times and options - do we need to book airport parking? Is there a train station nearby? Do we need to break up our journey with an overnight stay? How long will the journey take? I also like to investigate what there is to do nearby - is it child-friendly? Are there restaurants in walking distance? Do we need to pre-book any trips? In theory (although you'd probably never believe it, reading some of my blogs), all this organising should make sure that everything goes to plan - that we like where we're staying, that there's plenty to do and that we can get there okay. And, on the whole, it works. We have, without a doubt, had our share of holiday disasters, but rarely are they down to lack of planning. We've never stayed somewhere we didn't like, we've never been bored and we've never found ourselves stuck somewhere without knowing how to get home/back to our hotel.
I also like to organise everything because then I can look forward to it. Part of the excitement of a holiday is looking forward to it and planning everything. I like to read reviews in the run up to our trip, to plan activities and to look at photos of the area - it cheers me up, especially on a cold and miserable day!
So you can imagine how hard I'm finding it not being able to plan for my next holiday. So far removed from the planning am I, in fact, that I don't actually know where I'm going. I'm referring to wherever Lee is taking me for my 40th birthday next month. It's not a complete surprise, obviously - I know I'm going somewhere. Poor Lee knew he had to pull something out of the bag when I took him to Rome as a surprise for his 40th (Surprise 40th (a Sennett Holiday Disaster story)) and I told him he had six years to plan mine. I also knew I'd be going somewhere when all our holiday plans for the year studiously avoided mentioning February. Plus, what else would you get a holiday-obsessive for her 40th birthday?! In the end, I had to find out the dates of when we're going. Being self-employed, Lee could hardly arrange leave with my boss on the quiet - instead, I had to ask Lee when I'd be away so I knew what to tell clients. But still, other than the dates, that's pretty much all I know.
So, I can't read reviews. I can't look at photographs. I can't plan what we're going to do. I can't even write a list of what to take and/or wear. However, I've found a new obsession - guessing where I'm going on holiday. I'm trying desperately to come up with suggestions and get them proved or disproved. A couple of destinations have come up on my Facebook ads, making me wonder whether maybe that's because Lee's been looking at the same places. I've tried to think about places I might have mentioned I'd like to visit that Lee might have picked up on. Lee's dropped me a few nuggets - I know which airport we're going from, which airline we're using and the very rough times of day at which we're travelling. I know that Lee has considered hiring a car, and that it's apparently somewhere I won't guess. This certainly enables me to rule out a few destinations, but the possibilities are still endless. And, of course, he could be telling me a bunch of fibs just so I can't work it out!
The really funny - and slightly surprising - thing is, though, that I actually don't want to know. A few times, Lee has asked me if I just want him to tell me, after I've been winding him up trying to get it out of him. And the truth is, I don't! I can't pretend I haven't done a tiny bit of detective work but, in reality, I'd be gutted if I found out. I'm actually enjoying the excitement of having a surprise - probably because I'm such a control freak that it's very rare that anyone manages to surprise me! I feel like a child again, getting excited about my birthday for the first time in a very long time, and I'm thinking about it constantly. And I honestly won't be disappointed wherever we go (okay, within reason) because I love pretty much every type of holiday - plus it's a few days of 'us time' without the kids, which will make it special wherever we are.
Today I surprised myself by just how much I genuinely want it to remain a surprise. Getting back from the school run, I picked up my phone to see I'd had an email from Holiday Extras and a text from Lee, which read 'If you get anything from airport parking DON'T OPEN IT!' He'd booked the airport parking via a discount code I'd forwarded him, so the booking email - complete with flight details - had gone straight to my email address. So there I was, confronted with the opportunity to find out exactly where I was going. And I amazed myself by covering the email with my hand so that I could forward it to Lee, before deleting it from both my phone and the PC. I actually didn't want to know. It's true, honestly - amazing restraint! I can't pretend it's not killing me slightly, knowing the answer is there to find in my deleted folder, should I so wish. But somehow it's made it even more exciting, knowing how close I was to finding out.
So the subject of my next blog is a bit of a mystery to me too. Hopefully, it'll be full of tips about hotels and things to do in Florence/New York/Vienna/Budapest/Hong Kong/Vienna/Lake Garda/Dubrovknik/Copenhagen/Reykjavik/Berlin/Madrid* (delete as appropriate)!
*My final guess is in that list somewhere. I'll let you know if I was right!
Tuesday 31 January 2017
Friday 6 January 2017
Surprise 40th (a Sennett Holiday Disaster story)
With my own 40th looming (gulp!), I got to thinking about the surprise trip to Rome I planned for Lee's 40th six years ago. We had visited Rome very briefly as part of our honeymoon, and I knew Lee wanted to go back and see it 'properly'. I arranged for family to look after the boys, and I found a lovely, reasonably priced B&B near the Vatican (Romantic Vatican B&B - although I should add they seem to have had a makeover since we went!) on the recommendation of a friend who'd been shortly beforehand.
Keeping it secret, however, wasn't easy, as we had a joint bank account and (at the time) a joint email address. I opened a new web-based email account with which to book everything, and I got my mum to pay for the hotel on her card, while I siphoned off small amounts of money from the account to pay her back in cash bit by bit. The flights were more difficult. Not only were we not exactly flush but there was no way I could extract that much money from the account without Lee noticing. Then I hit on a genius idea - Nectar points. We had loads saved from our weekly Sainsbury's shopping and no way was Lee observant enough to notice them missing. I booked the flights.
One evening a week or so later, Lee came into the lounge clutching a receipt and with a face like thunder. 'Sainsbury's have cocked up,' he said. 'We should have thousands of points but this says we only have 200!' Why the hell was he examining old receipts for Nectar points?! I tried to look unbothered. 'Oh, it's obviously a mistake,' I replied. 'I'll sort it out tomorrow.' I wasn't overly worried - Lee always left sorting out things like that to me (the 'advantages' of working from home!), so I had nearly 24 hours to think up an excuse. A few minutes later, Lee walked back in with the phone attached to his ear. 'I'm still on hold - this is ridiculous!' he muttered. It certainly was. 'Don't worry, hang up. I'll sort it tomorrow. Get on with your work.' I took the phone from him and ushered him back into the study, feeling more worried by this point. 'It's okay,' he shouted back, a few minutes later. 'I've opened up a chat with customer services.' There was nothing I could do. I marched into the study and told him to close it down. He protested, confused. 'Just close it down. Trust me.' I glared at him. He complied, with a grin, as realisation dawned about roughly where the Nectar points had gone to. Okay, so he didn't know where we were going or what we were doing, but the surprise value had somewhat diminished!
Still, he was suitably pleased and surprised (I hope) when he found out we were going to Rome (by way of the guide book I'd wrapped up for his present). We spent a pleasant night at the airport hotel before travelling (without the kids to keep us awake all night). We had a pleasant flight (without the kids driving us mad with bickering). We navigated our way through the public transport and found the hotel without any problems. That's when things got difficult. A very nice man greeted us but, after the initial pleasantries, told us that he had expected us the previous day. At first, I assumed he had made a mistake, but no - I had. Somehow, I had managed to book us in for three nights starting the day before. To this day I have no idea how I managed it - I am usually meticulous with planning and organising. I can only assume I got confused with the date of the airport hotel. Whatever the reason, it didn't change the situation - I had just paid for a night we didn't use and, far worse, we now had nowhere to sleep for our last night in Rome. I felt sick to my stomach. Luckily, the nice man explained that, although our room was already booked by someone else for our third night, he had one other room free. We could remain at the B&B - we'd just have to move rooms. The nice man even proved how nice he was by not charging us for the extra night. In fact, it actually worked out pretty well - the room we moved into for our last night was the four-poster room I had originally tried to book but which had been full for the dates I (thought I) wanted. It meant we got a bit of variety without the hassle of moving hotel - crisis averted!
Thankfully, to the best of my memory, there were no more major disasters. The only real issue was the time that Lee managed to break the key in the lock of the front door to the B&B. Trying to explain what happened in pidgin Italian to the caretaker, who didn't speak a word of English, was... interesting - although I think Lee was as much chuffed by the sheer strength required to break a solid metal key as he was mortified by the incident...
So, the morals to this story. Check, double-check and triple-check your dates when booking anything. Turn keys gently. And complete surprises are bloody difficult to pull off. (Especially when someone asks if anything's happening around the time of their birthday so that they know whether they're free to take on a job - eh, Lee?!)
Keeping it secret, however, wasn't easy, as we had a joint bank account and (at the time) a joint email address. I opened a new web-based email account with which to book everything, and I got my mum to pay for the hotel on her card, while I siphoned off small amounts of money from the account to pay her back in cash bit by bit. The flights were more difficult. Not only were we not exactly flush but there was no way I could extract that much money from the account without Lee noticing. Then I hit on a genius idea - Nectar points. We had loads saved from our weekly Sainsbury's shopping and no way was Lee observant enough to notice them missing. I booked the flights.
One evening a week or so later, Lee came into the lounge clutching a receipt and with a face like thunder. 'Sainsbury's have cocked up,' he said. 'We should have thousands of points but this says we only have 200!' Why the hell was he examining old receipts for Nectar points?! I tried to look unbothered. 'Oh, it's obviously a mistake,' I replied. 'I'll sort it out tomorrow.' I wasn't overly worried - Lee always left sorting out things like that to me (the 'advantages' of working from home!), so I had nearly 24 hours to think up an excuse. A few minutes later, Lee walked back in with the phone attached to his ear. 'I'm still on hold - this is ridiculous!' he muttered. It certainly was. 'Don't worry, hang up. I'll sort it tomorrow. Get on with your work.' I took the phone from him and ushered him back into the study, feeling more worried by this point. 'It's okay,' he shouted back, a few minutes later. 'I've opened up a chat with customer services.' There was nothing I could do. I marched into the study and told him to close it down. He protested, confused. 'Just close it down. Trust me.' I glared at him. He complied, with a grin, as realisation dawned about roughly where the Nectar points had gone to. Okay, so he didn't know where we were going or what we were doing, but the surprise value had somewhat diminished!
Still, he was suitably pleased and surprised (I hope) when he found out we were going to Rome (by way of the guide book I'd wrapped up for his present). We spent a pleasant night at the airport hotel before travelling (without the kids to keep us awake all night). We had a pleasant flight (without the kids driving us mad with bickering). We navigated our way through the public transport and found the hotel without any problems. That's when things got difficult. A very nice man greeted us but, after the initial pleasantries, told us that he had expected us the previous day. At first, I assumed he had made a mistake, but no - I had. Somehow, I had managed to book us in for three nights starting the day before. To this day I have no idea how I managed it - I am usually meticulous with planning and organising. I can only assume I got confused with the date of the airport hotel. Whatever the reason, it didn't change the situation - I had just paid for a night we didn't use and, far worse, we now had nowhere to sleep for our last night in Rome. I felt sick to my stomach. Luckily, the nice man explained that, although our room was already booked by someone else for our third night, he had one other room free. We could remain at the B&B - we'd just have to move rooms. The nice man even proved how nice he was by not charging us for the extra night. In fact, it actually worked out pretty well - the room we moved into for our last night was the four-poster room I had originally tried to book but which had been full for the dates I (thought I) wanted. It meant we got a bit of variety without the hassle of moving hotel - crisis averted!
Thankfully, to the best of my memory, there were no more major disasters. The only real issue was the time that Lee managed to break the key in the lock of the front door to the B&B. Trying to explain what happened in pidgin Italian to the caretaker, who didn't speak a word of English, was... interesting - although I think Lee was as much chuffed by the sheer strength required to break a solid metal key as he was mortified by the incident...
So, the morals to this story. Check, double-check and triple-check your dates when booking anything. Turn keys gently. And complete surprises are bloody difficult to pull off. (Especially when someone asks if anything's happening around the time of their birthday so that they know whether they're free to take on a job - eh, Lee?!)
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