We made it!

Hurrah Hurrah, here I am in Greece. Sat at my parent's dining table whilst the lovely Paul sits on the sofa reading Clive Cussler with Alix the cat on his knee (a novel experience for him as our cat makes Ted Bundy look like a misunderstood softy). The girls are out with Papous and YiaYia (who have been heavily warned about Clara's roguishness and shoplifting tenancies!). How perfect!

The journey wasn't too much of a trial, Paul's alarm clock went a bit haywire and decided we needed to be woken at 3am instead of 4... no idea how that happened as in a fit of over prepared and worrying I made him double check it was set right and show me too. However, in hindsight, I am glad it did as I used that hour to decide that cramming everything in one bag was probably not the best idea as we would doubtless be bringing things home so a little bit of spare room wouldn't go a miss! Paul's eyes may have rolled, I wasn't looking that closely.

Children got up and dressed easily and were angels through the airport. We had a minor wibble where Phoebe thought her best buddy Moose was going to have to go in the hold and was crying that he was scared of the dark and couldn't go. She soon realised it would be fine and jovially put him through for his Tummy Check (aka going through the x-ray machine). Clara was less amused by this but conceeded eventually. They were fantastic on the flight, Phoebe watched the first 20 minutes of several movies on Paul's iphone and Clara just pointed everything out and then they both had a sleep. As the rows on this plane were 3 and 3 Paul volunteered to sit between them whilst I got to sit on the other side of the aisle. Once I realised they were behaving and he was in control (well, ish) I cracked out my laptop and happily played Sims 2 for a few hours, how marvellous!

This is the first time we have flown with Phoebe as a talking child so she was a little upset by the steep landing (Skiathos has a very short runway that is more than a little unnerving even to a seasoned flyer) and her ears hurt. Thankfully some lovely ladies 3 rows back gave us some chocolate for her to suck on so that stopped it hurting so much. I was pretty much deaf in my right ear until about 5 hours later however!

Papous was waiting for us and, as Paul and I had agreed, I took the children through to see him while Paul got the luggage. I had a slight worry that Paul wouldn't get through the fever seeking camera set up at the entrance to the Arrivals Hall as he has a cold and whilst it isn't Swine Flu his temperature usually goes up when he is fighting one off. Still he made it through and we went off to the dock to get the Seacat over to Alonissos. We will skim over the numpties aboard who chose to barge infront of Phoebe and Clara, and then again behind them neatly blocking them off from their parents just to get a seat. They are the more numptyish because they hadn't realised the top deck was pretty much empty. The girl's were delighted to see YiaYia as soon as we got off the Seacat and bounced over for hugs. As a parent I cannot describe how wonderful it is seeing my girls adore their grandparents. It really is exactly how it should be with all 6 of them.

Of course when it came to bedtime Phoebe was less thrilled with being here and sobbed that she wanted to go home. All of us tried to get her to sleep when she eventually passed out with a huge rottweiler dog soft toy and we all heaved a sigh of relief. A few vibes for an easier bedtime here tonight wouldn't go a miss. That said I have, or will have later, piriton and I am not afraid to use it!