we had a fantastic time.
(some of us more fantastic than others).
charles and dale had taken care of everything. i literally just had to decide which books i would bring and which clothes and we were off.
we travelled first class by hydrafoil to macau. all eight kids were so well behaved. stephanie assigned her two oldest boys to hold hands with our girls, and carys was just fine with that but sela decided she was going to be a cow. so poor cade is trailing her, sela with her little bum wig-wagging back and forth, hands tucked under her armpits, looking at his mother imploringly, "muumm???" but eventually sela thawed. jasper and grant chatted and all was well. dale and steph brought their brilliant helper as well. her name is sonia. she has known all our kids since they were tiny, as she is the manager of the creche at church. needless to say, we have COMPLETE confidence in her.
on the hydrafoil, sonia got a seat to herself, charles, sebastian and ian (steph and dale’s 6y.o.) in one row, then sela, carys and grant, steph, me, jasper, and cade, tre, and dale. perfect.
steph and i are much better with things if we don’t know the price. i loved travelling first class on the hydrafoil, but 266 per ticket? i liked it more before i knew the cost.
our rooms were fantastic, but the beds were twins! gah! sonia was to share a room with two boys and have one on the floor, charles and i were to have three kids in with us, and steph and dale were meant to have jasper and grant in their room.
but first we swam, and played in the hottub, and then had a fantastic massage.
but of course, being me, i had to get tetchy about something. here’s this. most resorts have a lending library of sorts. you know, you leave what you’re reading, and can pick up a book to read and return it. believe me, i can read a book in 24 hours. to be on the safe side, when i found their lending library, i selected a danielle steel. cut that down to 4 hours. max.
our room was on the top floor, furthest from the lift. and this lending library was UNDER LOCK AND KEY. seriously. i have never experienced that before. and when i told the girl i wanted to get a book, she agreed and asked for a 100hkd deposit, which would be returned with the book. seriously!
this is a lending library, not the thicker than my duvet bathrobe!
so i told her forget it, and walked away. but i mean really.
at dinner time, carys announced she was tired and wanted to put on her pajamas and go to sleep. sela said, "me too!". easy enough. the boys (6) went into sonia’s room to watch a dvd. "underdog". steph and i had baths to calm down our massage oils in hair head and apparently, as steph was coming up from a rise, she opened her eyes to find all six boys in the bathroom staring down at her.
tragedy! the dvd wasn’t working.
steph hustled them out of there, but not before sebastian could ask, "where’s my dad?" and steph, being angelic, didn’t answer any of the things i would have, just said, "he’s not in here!"
she got the dvd working (she is v. handy), the men smoked cigars, we ordered dessert, the dvd finished, seb came to our room and we put him down for the night. jasper fell asleep in sonia’s bed, after happily announcing, "i’m wearing pullups!".
at sparrow’s fart and song, sebastian awoke. he was sleeping right next to the terrace, so first light hit him strong. and suddenly charles and i heard, "mummy, daddy, i’m hungry." we threw a granola bar at him and an apple but the damage was done. it was 5.20am.
by 6am sela was awake. 6.30, carys. at 6.45 my husband took the kids for breakfast. (i had moved sebastian on to the bed by this point in hopes he would fall back asleep. i slept on the floor until around 8am. went to find my family. learned that jasper had woken up at 6am, and had said to sonia, "where’s grant?" and then when she said, "jj, it is still bed time!" he had gone back to sleep. glad that it worked for her.
more sun, more pool, lots of splashing, torpedos, submarines, and then it was time to come home. it felt like we were gone for much longer than 24 hours. it was fantastico!
