h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

welcome from another new to the guide grandmother.

Thanks for the welcome. This Granny stuff is great. All the fun and freshness of new eyes looking at the world with none of the down bits,(sleepless nights, dicipline, homework etc.) The oldest is seven, then five, 3 x three, 2, 6 + 3months. I still can't quite beleive it. Part of me feels that I can't possibly have so many at my age but then I remember what my age is and concede that it is possible.

you are much more experienced at being a granny than me. I only have 2 at the moment,but plenty of time for more. I agree that you get all of the good times and none of the sleepless nights, however ask me about this again in three weeks time after we have all been to Norfolk together in a caravan. I may not be so blase about it then.

A few years ago we had a holiday with all four daughters in a caravan in Cumbria. It was one of the big statics with three bedrooms. Daughter no 1 was expecting and had two small boys, daughter no 2 was pregnant and had been in a car accident leaving her very bruised, daughter no 3 had a five week old baby and daughter no 4 brought a friend and they stayed in a small tent just outside. My mum came as well as my husband. (All the other husbands were working) We had a great time, partly due to the fact that there were so many people that we could all do our own thing. For example if some wanted to go to Morcombe those who wanted to lounge by the pool didn't feel that they had to go as there were usually enough going.

It worked for us anyway.

We have now booked another caravan on the same site, not so much to avoid the baby crying, but to separate the three generation of female who are going to be on this holiday.
The oldest (me) who is premenopausal
The youngest ( my grandaughter) who is prepubesent
and the middle one ( my daughter) who is just bad tempered all the time. If the weather is bad having these three cooped up in one caravan together would make for a situation to rival nuclear meltdown.
It will be really nice to have the whole family together abeit in dribs and drabs, as next summer the daughter and family will probably be in NOrthen Ireland( husbands in the army)

We are in co Antrim if they want a welcoming committee. My Dad was in the Army stationed in Ballymena. I met my husband when I was at school here but my family returned to England a year later before we were serious (how slowly relationships moved in those days). We started writing to each other, then about eighteen months later he moved over and we got married. We moved back here over twenty years ago and a couple of years ago my Mum moved over and now we have houses next door to each other. She is a very active 76 year old. I can't think of 'elderly' and 'my Mum' in the same sentence.
We used to be more volitile but when we went through a crisis and almost reached breaking point all the things that would have had us screaming at each other didn't seem important enough to fight over any more so we end up laughing. (Hope that makes sense and doesn't sound too sickly)

P S they will have to be a bit careful with security though. Check me out first and so on.

Hi owlmeister
sorry I havnt been in touch, but when we came back from our holiday, some of the family just hung around for the weekend, so despite being reallly keen to get back to the guide I didnt have time until today.
Im back at work on nightds now, so i just have this little time in the afternoon to post.
The holiday was not too bad all things considered., at least the weather was on our side, except for one day when the fog just rolled in from the North Sea , and we never saw the sun, even though just 5 miles inland it was 25 degrees.
I managed to keethe females in our party from doing each other mortal damage, mostly by the use of copious amounts of alcohol and money.
Have you been away too?

Hello Nightnurse.

Welcome back. I'm glad the the holiday went well and everyone survived.

We got back from Munich on Tuesday but yesterday was Mum's birthday so the day was spent in partying and my brother, who arrived back from Turkmanistan a day or two earlier took us all out for a posh meal in the evening.

Our holiday went well. Mostly working as my daughter had a kitchen to fit and new bedroom furniture to put up but we had a good time and the weather was great. Managed to get some swimming and several strolls round Munich.

Hi ,
Sorry that it takes so long to get back to you, but Im on nights, and what with doing extra holiday cover, i don't seem to do anything except worksleepeatwork sleep eat with the occasional halfhearted flick round of the duster. The men in the house are very good about this, but I managed to upset everybody last night including sid the cat.
Was woken by the thunder this afternoon. The weather has been very strange in this last week, more like April then August.
Still off at the weekend and it James Roberts christening. The other grandparents have organised it in the town where his dad was bought up
Only downside is that it is about 40 miles away and we ahve to be there by 09.00 in the morning.Hope the weather keeps fine.( sorry had an atack of the smileys but Im all right now)

How did the Christening go? Did you get there in time. Must have been quite an early start. I love all the smilies. Very clever. I must work out how to do that.

Three of the grandchildren stayed with me for the weekend. Their Mum and Dad had an evening out and a lie in the next morning.. The children think it is a treat to come here. I can spoil them a bit and Roy can play silly games with them. The boys (7 & 5) are always taken in by his stories but the little girl (3) just says 'Oh Grandad!' In a 'you are just being silly again' tone of voice.

Only 10 days until my daughter and family are coming over from Munich. It will be fun to have them and her sisters are looking forward to a good chat. She is hoping to get a computer soon so it will be easier for them all to keep in touch.

Bye for now.

Susan