There’s only one thing that beats going on holiday for me and that’s planning for the next one…or two…or several. After our hugely successful Greek jaunt last summer, our attentions had naturally turned to our travels for 2018 and beyond: or perhaps, more honest, my attention was drawn to the “beyond”, whilst Mike and the kids were happy to just think about the next 12 months! With G heading into the start of 2 years studying for her GCSEs, which will kick off our family’s long haul navigation through the wonderful world of exams for both children, our holiday choices will need to accommodate school deadlines and revision demands as well as giving them, and us, the chance to kick back and relax away from it all.

We have long been considering a much overdue trip back to Canada to visit our family and friends, and have decided that 2018 is the year to do it. We are still ironing out the finer details for the trip – including which time of year is going to work best for us to go allowing for term dates, weather and flight availability – but with that big holiday tentatively pencilled into our calendars, our attention turned to fitting on some other smaller adventures throughout the rest of the year. Our starting point was a holiday in Scotland, somewhere neither child had been to before as well as a place we knew we’d be able to cater for M with relative ease and minimum stress. Having heard that G didn’t have a place on this year’s South Siblings OTW camp, we decided on 10 days during the Easter holiday and set to planning with relish once Christmas was out of the way.

Unfortunately, the bout of Aussie ‘flu that hit Mike and M in January combined with the tough couple of months that followed, meant that March rolled around with, much to my discomfort, nothing booked and only a very basic sketch of our proposed route through the North of England and Scotland. We decided to involve G and M in as much as the planning as they wanted and had been informed that the key places to visit on our approximately 1,800 miles car trip included Liverpool, Glasgow, Inverness, Edinburgh and Scarborough (don’t ask!). Armed with our calendar, a list of activities in each location, a reliable internet connection to facilitate mileage, travel time and hotel bookings in each of our destinations and a glass or two of wine, Mike and I sat down one night and booked what rapidly became known as our “Premier Inn” tour of Scotland.

As ever with our family, our plans to set off early to our first stop of Liverpool didn’t quite go according to plan, when Mike managed to enthusiastically floss a filling out of one of M’s baby teeth the weekend before our start date. It was only once the emergency appointment at our dentist was complete that we finally found ourselves on our way. Despite the late start, the Wednesday afternoon traffic wasn’t too bad, albeit the week before the Easter weekend, and we arrived in Liverpool by dinner time, ready to immerse ourselves in all things Beatles before carrying on in a more Northerly direction.