In praise of Kate

 

It being Mother’s Day here in the UK, I thought it was an opportune moment to sing the praises of the wonderful mother of my children. Those of you who know Kate won’t be surprised to hear that it’s she who has both driven our trip forward (often literally) and held it together in difficult times.

She did all of the driving in Europe while I looked after Sally and the girls (with varying levels of success). She’s a very cautious and skilled driver and the fact that she managed to get us all the way from Winchester to Greece and back without getting a ticket of any sort or, indeed, damaging the car in any way is testament to her abilities – and we drove on some pretty hairy roads and in some truly atrocious conditions. In her role as our personal travel agent, she spent hours and hours on the computer tracking down a series of amazing and cheap places for us to stay. And she was a calming presence whenever I lost it with the girls, which was far too frequently.

Back at home, she has found and called in a steady stream of contractors to sort out the damage to the house while organising the next, very complicated, leg of the journey. Her keen eye for trouble has helped us to navigate around all manner of potential pitfalls and to jump through an assortment of bureaucratic hoops. More often than not you’ll find her on the laptop, tirelessly researching yet another obscure element of the trip.

To say that we wouldn’t be doing this trip without her doesn’t even come close to covering it and I shall be forever indebted to her for making it all happen – and for generally making my life that much happier and more fun than it would otherwise be.