FAMILY MATTERS by Jude Dobson

Travel light - well, that's the plan.
School holidays are here and we're off to the other side of the globe. Travelling en famille to Europe requires a fair bit of planning - especially for a family of five. It seems the world is set up for two adults and two kids. That extra child means an extra room or a bigger set of wheels.
I've spent countless hours in recent months scouring the net for cost-effective accommodation that is family friendly. The fab thing about the net is that Joe Average will tell you the lowdown on almost any accommodation you are looking at, so you get the real oil on a place, not just the spin. So, with the headache of the itinerary finally nailed, with a combination of apartments, bed and breakfasts, a self-cater house, a youth hostel on one occasion, and bunking in with friends in UK, my focus finally moved to extricating ourselves.
In theory, one should be able to pack just a few bags, close the front door and go. The reality is that you run around like a mad thing with a to-do list that seems to keep growing. The car needed a warrant of fitness the week after we left and, of course, there was a fix-it list to action and two new tyres, meaning a decent dent in our holiday spending money.
The list of all the other things due to  expire while we're away grew longer and longer: insurances, musical instrument hire, on it went. All needing attention before their due dates.
Then there were the kids to manage; cribbing a bit out of term time means term three's activity list needed sorting, plus missed schoolwork factored in. Given the rise and rise of swine flu and the threats of school closures in the media should it take its grip, I figured it was a good exercise anyway to be across what the kids are covering currently in case e-learning becomes a reality.
There's also the house to sort. We have people moving in while we are away, and so while that is obviously a good thing, it also means the house needs to be left in a presentable state. The problem is that making it presentable can turn into a major overhaul. Once again, in theory, one should just be able to do what you need to and move on but, alas, no. Something in me seems to be preprogrammed to override that very sensible sentiment.
Opening the medicine cabinet to compile my portable first aid kit (I carry an arsenal to cope with everything from sore tummies to broken bones) should have been a 15-minute job. But it wasn't. It became an audit of what I do and don't have, topped off with the overdue tidy up.
The same overhaul was given to the cork board that holds various notices, the fridge (non-negotiable, that one) and the small person's toys as we dealt with deciding which three (small) items would be privileged to come on the journey.
Just as I was knee-deep in all this, the pink plastic bag arrived in the letterbox, so that was another job to add to the list. The going through of the clothes to see what still fitted the kids. I justified it to myself as something that simply had to happen so, when I finally got round to packing the kids' bags, it was an easier task.
As my husband reminded me, the people moving in are actually close family members, so it is not as if I need to present the place as if it were a show home. They would not be playing with the toys or going through the kids' wardrobes, but I was a woman on a mission and those words were completely lost on me.
However, I should have held the 3.31am emails in draft to be sent at a more normal time, so as not to concern others about the hours I was keeping to conquer my to-do list from hell.
"Don't worry," I said, "we can sleep on the flight."
Yes, well, might be a bit hopeful there with three kids on a very long, completely full flight in cattle class. But hey, sleep is overrated when there's an adventure ahead. Talk to you next week from France! A bientot!