Family HolidaysBack in the 80s when my Dad got made redundant (hello Dad!), he spent all the redundancy money on one of those big motor caravans.
Us kids loved it, apart from when my sister threw up on my sleeping bag, but looking back I'm not so sure my mum did. There was a certain tension every time the big van was even mentioned, let alone driven around France for weeks on end with her still having to cook and do all the washing.
What went wrong, what went right, and how did you survive the shame of having your family with you as a teenager?
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chthonic, Thu 2 Aug 2007, 14:33)
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Not my family, but a family we know.Tony and Christine are some couple- he's a borderline alcoholic German teacher, she's an angry, six foot tall music teacher. Lovely people, but very strong personalities that are prone to clashing.
They engage annually in a scheme which allows them to 'house-swap'. They end up in some lovely part of western Europe, and the other suckers take on their (admittedly lovely) house in our dodgy little home town.
One year, they really lucked out. The family they'd arranged to swap with had a picturesque thatched-roof cottage in Bavaria. The location and house were beautiful- so beautiful that Tony had insisted on driving non-stop all the way there.
On their arrival, Christine was understandably tired. She lit the open coal fire and sat down with a bottle of wine.
Tony, on the other hand, felt quite energetic. He had the school video camera and was making a video to show his students.
He panned around the garden, naming the flowers and the trees; describing his two children as they played. He panned around to the house, and the beautifully made thatched roof. Which was now on fire.
Explain that one to some irritated Bavarians.
(, Tue 7 Aug 2007, 22:09, Reply)
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