The adverts for holidays always include happy people gettingon to a flight, hand in hand and they never let go for the rest of the holiday. (Do you notice it is always the woman dragging the man around? What would happen if you let go? Would he run off to the pub?) It kind of indicates it’s all been stress free. But is that the case really?

Getting everything ready to pack- is it just my household or do the women have all their things looked out days before but the man says he knows what he needs and will sort it on the day? He then decides on the morning you are due to set off that he needs to quickly nip into town for something….
He doesn’t see why I need all the different strengths of suntan lotion. He only needs 2 bottles- factor 20 and factor 10. But once we are there, he suddenly decides that he will use my factor 30 for the bald spot on his head, the back of his neck and the tops of his arms. I learned years ago that I just lay out
all my stuff to be packed and disappear to let OH do the packing. If I don’t there is usually a row. It starts off gently enough- are you actually needing all those shoes and sandals? We are
only away for a fortnight. Then it escalates. So its better that I am out of the way! I do need to check at the end as he tries to leave behind half the hangers I have set out- I mean, you can never have too many hangers can you!

Airports- we have the delight of usually having to fly to Heathrow first before our main flight. Now we are actually only about 20 mins away from Dyce airport but OH decides we need to leave home 3 hours before the flight, just in case….. I think its more to do with the bar but he insisits its
just about not risking being late for the flight. Once there, he remembers he has left half of the chargers at home and he definitely needs to invest in a new multi charger plug. I think we have a full drawer full of them at home now.
We need to get through check in and move at a 100 miles an hour to get to security. Usually this means that I am running after him, at the same time as trying to put the tickets in the wallet without dropping the passports. I really should just slow down- he needs his passport from me to get through
security after all.
Heathrow- Why can’t folks actually wheel their cabin bags through the airport, taking note of the people around them? Why is that you stand forever in a long queue to get through security, but its only when some reach the belt that they start slowly taking off jackets or taking tablets out of their case? And they never take change out of their pockets? For the men, your problems are only just beginning- you have to walk as quickly as you can and turn stone deaf so that you are not aware that
your OH wants to have a look in the designer shops you are passing on your way to the bar! It’s no wonder that I am exhausted by the time I sit down on the plane and sleep for most of the journey ( that is as long as the three year old behind me isn’t kicking the chair and his baby brother isn’t
crying! )

Do you recognise any of this or are you just the serene type that loves all the packing and wanders through the airport looking immaculate, gently pulling along your OH behind you, all the time smiling back at them?