School Day Trips

This week it was the girls school day trips and they were both going to the seaside, Weston-Super-Mare. Only Lucy went on Wednesday and Leila went to today. To keep down costs we decided one parent to go with each. Lucy chose daddy so I was with Leila.
I'll start with our trip today. First off I found out that the two friends I speak to most at the school were not going so I wouldn't have anyone to hang out with. Never mind I though, me and Leila can have some special time together, and I was sure we wouldn't be on our own all day. Little did I know that I would be the only person who did not take someone else along. So ok it was just me and Leila then, we could still have fun couldn't we?

We arrived at lunch time during a torrential downpour, so we ran into a shelter and had our picnic. Then we hopped from shelter to shelter to get to the pier, but still ended up like drowned rats, literaly dripping wet. The pier was ok, Leila went on a few of the little rides and it was warm and dry. But Leila really wasn't her usual bubbly self and kept asking me to pick her up. I was dying for  a coffee but the queue was long and Leila was bored, so I thought we'd go and see if it had stopped raining.Yeah! it had

So off to the beach for a donkey ride....Leila looks over the side of the pier and says 'wow, what a big muddy pond!'

We get to the beach and Leila starts screaming for me to pick her up. The sand is wet and sticky like mud and we've got sandles on. Leila hated it. I carried her to the donkeys and we got into a train being pulled by a horse. The ride along the beach was lovely, the sun shined and we both enjoyed it.....that was the best 5 minutes of the day.

After I carried her back to the pavement, all the time she was screaming 'carry me', but I was carrying her, but she still carried on screaming. So I put her down and she screamed more, so I picked her up and she screamed still, I sat her on a chair, I sat her on my lap on a chair, I offered her food, drinks, sweets, ice cream, gifts, but I couldn't stop her crying. Eventually I went and sat with her in an empty shelter and waited for her to cry it out. Obviously she just wasn't feeling well.

Once calm was resumed I decided to continue my quest for a cup of coffee. There was a cafe nearby on the beach. I made a deal with Leila, I'd carry her to the picnic bench on the beach and she could wait there for me while I fetched a coffee. I offered her an ice cream but she refused. Once on the bench we spotted one of her little friends with a bucket and spade. She came over to Leila with her uncle and tried to entice Leila to play but it didn't work. So I sat and drank my coffee with Leila on my lap and managed a 10 minute chat with another adult. It had been sunny now for around 40 minutes so I guess the big black ominous cloud above us was a reminder that this was definately not going to be a beach day. I announced that  I didn't fancy getting wet again and left for the shelter of the local town centre. We went to a little playground that I knew of, but Leila didn't want to play. Then the heaven's opened again so we went into the indoor market. It was crap but dry. I was bored, Leila just wanted to be hugged or carried, I couldn't think of anything else to do and it was another hour before time to go home.
We ended up in a cafe where I had a pot of tea and Leila had a plate of chips which she didn't touch (the waitress asked why and I told her she wasn't feeling too good so she didn't charge me for them) she sat colouring a picture and pen set I'd just paid £1 for in the market. We stayed there until it was time to get back on the coach.
The journey home was a nightmare 4 hours (should have been 2) we had a little girl fall down the steps of the coach and smash her face in, a mum go missing for 25 minutes while we were all waiting at the service station, turns out there was big queue at KFC (it was supposed to be a 10 minute tiolet stop) we had to have a second tiolet stop for one child who was desperate and despite the desperate please of the coach driver, everyone else child had to go pee urgently too (or rather the parents were desperate for a fag) We stayed on the coach, Leila didn't want to move.  So we got home two hours late and totally miserable. I had a crap day, but I feel so bad that my little girl had such a terrible day too.

Graham's trip with Lucy hadn't been totally stress free either. He'd been placed in charge of a friends little girl who was really cheeky and naughty all day. But they did have the sunshine, and Graham had company all day when he teamed up with another mum.