What can I do?

We did the camping thing this weekend. It was good. Yes, I think about the weekend, now, and have fond memories, despite the fact that there was much grumpiness and arguing (children and adults alike!), much sweating and melting, and much effort needed to put up and take down the massive tent in the sweltering heat. (Yes, I know that some readers - Jamie - experience temperatures like this in the winter probably, but it's sweltering for us! ;) ). Camping in a mini heatwave is not the best idea, for someone like me who really doesn't do well in temperatures over 20˚c. But we'd promised the kiddy-winks, so we had to do it - I can imagine them talking about us in years to come, saying 'yeah, our parents were quite nice, but they did make a lot of promises that they were too lazy to keep'! I'm not having that!

The boys were fantastic when they were not whining, and they made plenty of new friends. Thomas always does make friends, and James usually tags along being shy. But it was wonderful to see James make some friends of his own. There was Thomas on one side of the field playing football with some bigger boys, and there was James on the other side messing about by the water tap with some boys more his own age. Matthew didn't really seem inclined to be sociable this time. He was quite content to stay around our little camp when Kev and I were getting food ready and stuff. He did run off a few times, but it was cool, because the camp site is so secluded that he couldn't run off to anywhere dangerous. So he was able to run free, and I'd eventually go and get him when I'd finished what I was doing.

And dirt? Oh, well, there's nothing more beautiful than sitting down around the camp fire in the early evening, looking at three tired and filthy boys, and knowing that they've had a good time just running around and getting covered in dirt :) We all got pretty mucky - there's just no sense in trying to keep clean when you're camping.

But, oh! The best personal experience for me, by far, was this:

I didn't want to go into the shower block to have a shower because there was a gigantic beetle type thing in there. I was okay for the first day, I managed to go to the loo, to do some washing up in there and not run out screaming, because I saw the beetle, it wasn't moving and I could keep an eye on it. But the next day it had disappeared, and I just KNEW that if I went into the shower it would be waiting for me, and it would fall into my hair - just like that scene with Goldie Hawn in 'Bird on a Wire' when she gets landed on by a cockroach! But on Sunday morning my hair was so greasy, you could have rung it out and used the drippings to fry a plateful of chips. Something had to be done. The morning before I had seen someone brushing their teeth at the water tap in the corner of the field, so I decided that I was going to wash my hair there. I had two teeny travel bottles of Tresemme, so I stuffed them into the waistband of my pyjamas, and stomped over to the tap. I turned the tap on, and it was so lovely and cool - it wasn't freezing, because the pipe was above ground and the water in it was warmed just a little by the sun. Ordinarily I doubt I would dream of washing my hair in cold water, but the weather was scorchio, and I just didn't care. So I stuck my head under the tap, and my goodness, it was good. The best feeling I've experienced in a long time, and I felt a huge grin spread right across my face. I stayed there for as long as I could, washing, lathering, conditioning (yes, I even conditioned!), and washing my face and neck at the same time. I really did not want to turn the tap off, but had to eventually. Oh, just heavenly. Cold water, clean hair. It may be a little sad that this will be my abiding memory of the weekend, but I'm a woman of simple pleasures :D

So, next time we go camping, perhaps in a few weeks, it will hopefully not be quite so hot. But at least if it is hot I will have the hair washing to look forward to!

Anyway, as is usually the case when we've been somewhere, I start to wonder about what we can do next. Then I start to think 'sod the rest of my family, what can I do next?' because I am a very selfish being. And then I was reading one of the blogs that I follow, and the author takes trapeze lessons. So that's what I want to do - I had a look at some videos, and it looks fantastic. But then I have a Google, and find that the only place I could get lessons is in London, and that place doesn't even do catches, just swinging. So trapezing is out, for now - I'll bear it in mind for future achievements, say when I'm 60.

But what can I try instead? I like climbing and jumping off high things, so my mum has suggested this balancing on a telegraph pole type thing (can't remember what she called it). Will look into that. But I want more. I don't want to get into daft extreme sports, not parachute jumping for me. Not bungee jumping either. I guess I just like being in trees. Maybe I could find somewhere where I could get really high in the trees, like they do in the rainforests, with all those pulleys and harnesses and stuff. Do we have really high trees in the UK? Mmmm, possibly not. So, any ideas? We've got archery on the list of things to do, but there's not much adrenaline involved with that one. Skiing is also on the list - some adrenaline involved there. More tattoos too - lots of adrenaline for that one! No falling though - falling is needed. Anyone know of any activities that I could do that involve falling and leaving your stomach behind you when you drop? Maybe I need to take up Parkour ( - here's a site, with some videos on it). Yes, Parkour could be good. Noomski fancies it too.

Well, I'd best get on with some work before it's time to collect the two little guys from nursery :)

Have fun today.