Our Majorca holiday

We love to go to Puerto Pollensa in Majorca and after our 2 weeks last year we said we would take Hannah and Megan this year for a week and have 9 or 10 days after on our own. This was agreed with the children's parents and schools and then we realised how unwell our lovely daughter Kaye was and thought it might help her to come out for a week with Sebastian too. We all set out for the airport with much excitement, our wonderful friend Mike chauffeured Andy, the girls and myself to Bristol airport and Simon brought Kaye and Seb to meet us there. We checked in and got priority boarding which was great, the girls were sooo excited as they had never flown before. We had a lovely meal before boarding and very soon we were winging our way to Majorca. The girls loved the flight, looking out of the windows and giggling at the fluffy clouds. It was getting dark as we landed and the sparkling lights of Palma were wonderful from the air. We collected the 7 seater hire car and set off for Puerto Pollensa. We got to the apartment and had a quick drink and a biscuit or two and went to bed. We have stayed in this fab apartment before, 3 mins from the beach, just up the road from the British food & Hire shop. It has three big bedrooms, 2 large bathrooms, lounge diner and fabulous kitchen, fully equipped laundry room and has a pool shared by the other block residents. The girls thought it was heaven. The week was spent, swimming in the pool, on the beach, snorkelling, eating ice creams and dining out in our new holiday threads. Evenings were spent mixing with the locals in the square until very late, the culture is very much about including the kids in everything and evenings of course are cooler. The girls turned a lovely bronze colour and looked gorgeous, they were made a fuss of wherever we went and they behaved beautifully the whole holiday. We were so proud of their manners and social skills. Little Seb turned out to be proper water baby and wasn't content to just paddle...he wanted to be in up to his neck!! He loved making sandcastles with Gandy and then running off for Gandy or me to chase him. He delighted the staff in every bar and eaterie and is a dreadful flirt with the girls, cheeky smiles and giggles galore. We went to the market on the last day the girls and Kaye were there and they bought gifts and souvenirs with their holiday money, tried lots of local goodies and I treated us all to a gorgeous fish lunch on the square. As we were leaving the girls asked if we could look at getting their hair braided by the Senegalese ladies in the market, I said we would go and look but nearly fell over when they asked for 60euro each for the girls. I said no and they reduced the price to a 100euro for both. Still too rich for my blood. She asked me how much I would pay and I looked at how much cash I had and told her no more than 30euro for both! She almost spat at me and I said sorry but I didn't have any more to spend and walked away. We had only taken 5 steps and they were coming after us shouting "Nanna, Nanna, OK 30 euro for both." So they had their hair braided and were totally made up. We arrived back at the apartment and all they could tell Gandy was how Nanny had argued with the women to get their hair done. Gandy explained it's called 'haggling' and the girls decided between them to try it out next time they bought anything. We'll see how that pans out. All too soon the week was over and we all wished that we had booked for them to stay the whole time, but we tearfully waved goodbye at Palma airport, ditched the hire car and returned on the shuttle bus for a less strenuous few days. Poor Andy's Sciatica had been playing up and we had to make 2 emergency appointments with a local physio. Thank goodness our friends Sam and Ian who are residents there had a number for him. We enjoyed the rest of our time but perhaps didn't do as much physically as usual due to Andy's pain. We paid for it when we got home with a significant weight gain of over 7lbs for each of us...aaaaarrgghh! The trip home was horrendous as Andy couldn't stand for any length of time even when using his walking stick so we had to have a wheelchair and assistance through the airport and on and off the plane. He was so embarrassed but I couldn't manage everything so we had to have help.

Thankfully we got home and he had an appointment with the wonderful Wanda who has sorted him right out ( I don't know how, it's on a need to know basis evidently)

We thoroughly enjoyed having the girls,Kaye & Seb with us and will definitely do it again and hopefully with all the Grandchildren soon, maybe a very big villa to share next time...sounds great to me. It's all about family for us and the special memories that are left after sharing lovely family times together, bigger and better next time me thinks!

Here are a few pics to give you an idea of our fun....