Then I decided that I might brave taking the kids away to Malta for a week on my own in the second half of the holidays. It wasn’t a quick decision. I deliberated for weeks on end, and for the longest time it didn’t look like it would be happening. (Mostly because it involved me needing to drive in Malta, and if anyone in Dubai thinks the driving is bad here, go check out Malta.) But then it occurred to me that if I just treated Malta like any other holiday destination, things might work better. So I checked taxi prices and looked at bus routes, and in the end begged my Mum to pretty much drive us everywhere. And when she unwittingly agreed, I booked the shortest flights I could find before I could change my mind again.
And that way, Summer was broken down into nice little manageable chunks. I don’t like being away for long periods. And Dubai is awesome in Summer. Hot, but awesome. (But that’s a separate post)
So in the end it looked like E and A would only be doing 2.5 weeks of summer camp. And true to my word, I cut down on the unnecessary driving around and sent them both to a camp that is literally around the corner. So “literally” that it wasn’t even worth taking the car out and I walked them there and back every day, which meant braving the 1pm temperatures in July in Dubai (you don’t want to know how hot).
Those 2.5 weeks would be my chance to get everything done. I packed it with appointments and coffees with friends. Because once we got back from Malta, I was determined that there would not be any more summer camp, and that meant that anywhere I went, the kids would be coming too.
And something told me that as long as we had a plan, it’d be absolutely fine.
Planning
Early on, it looked very much like any other summer. A family holiday booked for the start of the holidays (Singapore and Legoland Malaysia), and brochures for a few summer camps scattered around the house and car for me to look at in detail when I had the inclination.
The Pretty Walrus
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