Flyaway Games

Huffle and I slept in until 9:30am though we did have quite a broken nights sleep. It was so hot and airless. The boys are suffering from too many late nights or being too close to each other for so long as they are starting to pick fights and speak horribly to each other. Huffle has already banned tablets for tomorrow morning for them fighting. "He called me stupid so I called him fat!" Oh dear!

Smallest is on his last but one Steriod this morning. He hates it, he says it tastes like wee and he has to drink 30ml of it. It makes him retch and he dithers over taking it. His ventolin puffing is going well, he does it without problems and knows what time he has to do it. Unfortunately I can't remember what the doctor said about how long he has to have it. When I read back on previous posts it said steroids for two weeks and ventolin for two days but that makes no sense as the steroids only last for two days. He seems okay with the ventolin as it is so maybe we'll carry on for the rest of the week and see how it goes. It is certainly not stopping him climbing as those steps to and from the beach are really steep! We gave the house a vacuum today anyway and all the doors and windows are open. I don't think there is a problem with pollen though something is affecting me with my breathing and itchy eyes.

Late breakfast outside started our day followed by a game of Chess with Huffle and Smallest and then an everybody game of Catan. We now have three games that all connect to each other but only brought the basic game with us, however we forgot a few of the main elements of the game so we had to improvise. It was also breezy so our stone collection came in handy as card weights. I won with Smallest a close second. The boys read quietly by themselves until we went into Bayfield for an early afternoon dinner.

A painting Huffle and I really liked

Today we chose the Albion Hotel. It was nice, not spectacular but nice. We got to watch a bit of Wimbledon and Andy Murray was playing. We came away just before the start of the Wales v Portugal game. Wandering down the Main Street of Bayfield, we just happened upon a Gelato place so thought we would just see what they had. Today's flavours consumed were Lemon Cream, Strawberry Cheesecake and Salted Caramel which we ate on the bench outside.

It was a much cooler and cloudier day again. There are three main beaches and we chose the one near the park first. It was high up some steps and we could hear people so we ventured to the one with the car park Of course this was full of people and the sand wasn't so good so we tried the last one. This is where we came the other evening after dinner to see the sunset. It was perfect. Just a smattering of people, lovely sand with a handful of stones at the waters edge. We set up camp with just an umbrella, four chairs and towels and our orange ball. We all went into the water and swam. It was the warmest in there it has been so far despite the coolness out of the water. It was nicely shallow and also deep at the same time. The boys stayed in forever and Huffle played catch in there with them while I read my book.

There was sunken ship in the water and the seagulls were landing on it and taking it in turns to stand apart equidistant from each other. It was fascinating to watch. People were diving off here earlier

Panoramic of the beach

Eventually one by one the smattering of people disappeared until it was just us left. More swimming, a bit of walking for me and later with Smallest, more reading, lots of catching and much later on lots of wave watching. The waves got bigger but not big enough for the body boards but the boys did lots of wrestling in there and surfing on their bellies! They loved it.

UNO on the beach for all of us with r makeshift towel table

We almost stayed until the sunset but I needed the loo and the sun went behind a cloud right at the last minute. We think we planned our day perfectly today.

The lady next door gave is the wifi password again to her wifi as we are having no end of trouble with MrWhites. We did email him this morning but he said he has the same problem. Not impressed MrWhite. We specifically asked for wifi, that means we want it. That doesn't mean we are happy for it to drop out every five minutes! False advertising! Thank you lady next door, you are a lovely lady. Yesterday she gave us a pile of leaflets telling us what was happening locally. Today she gave is the local newspaper to read. MrWhite, you are lucky you have such a nice neighbour!!!!!!

 

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WATERMELON!

The results in the Holiday 'Canada's Got Stones' have been counted and verified and the winner is............LINES. Smallest is very happy as this is the one he found himself.

First thing this morning was cloudy and slightly cooler. It was quite refreshing not to have to escape the harsh sun for a change. After a very slow breakfast, a relax on the hammock and games of chess and draughts, I persuaded everyone to come for a walk along the beach.

We packed nothing and just walked, found stones, skimmed, climbed, got a bit grumpy (our nearly teenager) and mostly enjoyed the solitude. There was a huge rock some of us climbed which had lots of people's carvings in it and we found lots of fossils in stones and rocks nearby. The stones here are so varied, in colour, size, pattern. We could live here forever and still be amazed at the different rocks we find. There was a beautiful butterfly that seemed to follow us too.

We did not bump into any people for the whole walk and we ended up walking for 2.5 hours. Not fast paced, just dawdling but it was very nice. I had a sneaky lie in one of the beach hammocks. There is no sign saying they belong to anyone but they obviously do. The rest of my family thought that I was very naughty. Pah!

Back to the house for lunch outside on the deck and a swing in the hammock, that wasn't naughty, it belongs here!

We were all very hot and bothered so took minimum stuff down to the beach for a quick swim and a game of French and normal cricket. Unfortunately we forgot the umbrellas so stayed down there for a very short time. Very enjoyable though.

Back up the steep forest climb, showers and back out for dinner at West Side Willies for pizza and pasta. We came here when we first arrived and our waitress was very attentive and happy to serve. Today wasn't so good as the waitress seemed detached and busy. She didn't help me choose a beer and was a bit short with us. The food, however was lovely and she forgot to charge us for two huge milkshakes, a Sprite and a beer so I think we did okay.

Tonight we decided to come back to the house early for a relax before bed.

 

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Should'a chugged it

Well that was a better night than we expected. Smallest slept all the way through and despite Huffle and I going to bed finally at 1:30am, we slept in till 8:30am. As we left Smallest sleeping last night his breathing sounded gravelly and rattly but when Huffle checked on him this morning, it was clear and steady. He slept until way past 9pm. We tested his breathing after his first ventolin use and it went right up to 200. What a difference from the 50 he did last night at the hospital.

Quiet relaxing reading time

We had breakfast outside again, a game of chess and then a FaceTime with Grandma. We had a very slow relaxing start and then went off to pick up Smallest's prescription. The Pharmascist was very nice and helpful and suggested we didn't need the extra tube as the one provided by the hospital was sufficient - that saved us $35. Everything else; steroids, extra inhaler was covered by our insurance bar $4. We also bought him some new antihistamines as suggested by the doctor last night and confirmed by the Pharmascist today. We picked up some water shoes for Smallest and some more breakfast items and a baguette for lunch which we ate on a shaded bench next to the main beach. It was very interesting watching the passers by on the boardwalk and the beach. After our impromptu lunch of ripped baguette smeared with Laughing Cow and our lovely sweet treat from the bakery, we ventured along the boardwalk for a while before we got too hot and turned around.

Everyone decided we would go back to the house and see how we felt. We were all very tired but decided to go for a dip in the lake nearby after gathering enough stuff for just two families today. There was one other family on the beach who we met briefly this morning when they walked by the house. It seems they are relatives of MrWhite's wife. They left the beach shortly after introducing themselves. Perfect.

We had a god couple of hours to ourselves to swim, play French Cricket, Cricket and more Canada's got Stones. We have decided our shortlist of today's stones will go to the Public Vote and Smallest would be very happy if you could help us decide what the final ones should be.

Just pausing to say that while writing this, Huffle is currently digging a splinter out of my heel with a plastic knife and he thinks he was successful.

After showers and a relax on the house deck, we ventured into Bayfield for dinner. Huffle chose a pub called The Black Dog which was excellent. I had a craft unfiltered beer which was lovely and had a vegetable curry with it. Yum yum. Smallest was obviously feeling much better and definitely had his appetite back as he tucked into a full size burger.

After dinner we had a poddle around the town. It was very pretty and had quite a British feeling about it. It's a good job the shops were shut....... The boys found a giant sailor and we wandered around the lovely craft places.

It was a beautiful evening and we passed by several ice cream shops before deciding on a place where we sampled Jalopeno flavour. NO! That doesn't work! Today's flavours were: coconut, s'mores, salted caramel truffle and Key Lime Pie. We sat and watched the World go by again before getting up and driving to the beach just to check it out for another day.

The sun was just setting as we climbed down 80 steps to a lovely sandy beach, quite small very nice.

We didn't stay long as it was late and we have all had a good day, with Smallest feeling especially good, a few coughs but appetite back to normal if not more, medication being taken regularly and a much happier, sillier, boy.

 

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Canada's got Stones*

Everyone slept well considering it was new surroundings. The boys had no idea what the time was but Smallest said he was woken by the birds at 4am. How did he know it was 4am? He guessed. Well it was probably 8am then knowing him. Bless him, he is not well at all. We dosed him up with Vitamins, Vitamin C sweets, hot lemon and plenty of fluids. We could tell he wasn't right because he wasn't his normal silly self.

MrWhite emailed us this morning to say he had put in a call to their internet provider and then another email saying that "after conversing with his wife and son-in-law........................" And gave us another password which worked. HURRAH we are now all connected, though Small did ask "what speed is it" before changing from dog lady's wifi. It is in fact slower than hers but it will do us. MrWhite hoped we weren't too inconvenienced and wished us a relaxing vacation. It turns out that his wifi is very bad and keeps dropping out. Huffle is getting fed up with turning it off and on.

Small in the hammock

After a lovely breakfast outside in the garden, we slowly gathered enough belongings to furnish three beach families and made our way down the tricky steep steps, through the cool of the forest and onto the deserted beach (except for a family who were hidden behind some trees). The boys were sent on ahead and were straight into the water, slightly warmer today but less waves.

We had a lovely rest of the morning (though we didn't get onto the beach until past 11am) by ourselves, only disturbed briefly by a young couple and a dog. *we were entertained on the beach by Smallest showing us his most enviable finds on the stone front. We whittled them down to the last four before choosing our finalists and eventual winner. It was just like Britains Got Talent but with stones. We came back to the house with too many stones as usual but funnily enough they didn't look as good when they weren't wet!

We finished off our Manzarotti for lunch sitting by the calm of the lake stuffed into the Sportbrella shade.

We had lots of reading, swimming, sandcastle building, rock finding and Huffle and I even had two little walks all by ourselves though we cut our last one short when we saw Smallest standing in the water without his hat on. Poor little Seal Cough. We have to get him better.

This afternoon we were joined on the beach by a large family that smoked endlessly while their children screamed annoyingly. Eventually we turned our Sunbrella around so we didn't have to see them or ingest their second hand smoke and found we were instead looking at the couple with the dog who had come back again. This in turn, made them run away and move somewhere else. The smokey family disappeared after a while and we turned ourselves back around to gain as much shade as possible. Our neighbour (not the nice lady who gave us Wifi) who we have named Otto2 due to the fact he smells like our neighbour at home (with his smoking of weed) came and introduced himself on the beach and said to let him know if we want anything. Well we don't want your second hand weed smoke thank you very much!

Everyone went in and swam today and although it was quite cool, once you were in it was lovely. The funny thing is, that before the smokey family came along, the lake was beautifully calm and clear and after they went, it was all ripply and scummy. Just sayin'. We stayed until around 4:30pm and then made our way slowly back to the house. As we only have one shower, it was a slow process getting clean and ready for an evening out.

The little bunky house in our garden.

Tonight's delights was supposed to be us dining at a quirky little fish and chip shop that was just closing as we sat down but they let us have take away. Four Alaskan pollock and Chips and a drive to the beach for our dinner. We actually sat on the beach volleyball umpire's seat overlooking the beach and lake. It was very pleasant.

We walked up 188 steps, which was challenging, to the top of a hill to find benches, bugs and a fabulous view. Back down 188 steps (yes we counted) and back into the car to look for ice cream. Now really this was to soothe poor Smallest's throat. He didn't actually want one but we thought it might help and maybe even numb it. The lady said the smallest scoop was really tiny but that's what he had (In actual fact it was two small scoops and he had a white lemon sorbet which he said helped greatly). I also had a one scoop but Huffle and Small were big pigs and had two and they were ENORMOUS!

As we were walking to get back to the car, Smallest started coughing like a seal really badly and struggled to catch his breath, even Small was worried. We quickly tried to find a pharmacy but it was nearly 9pm and they were closed. We picked him up some painkillers in the supermarket and asked about a local walk-in clinic and they suggested we went to the Emergency Hospital nearby. We felt a bit awkward going in there as we would never go to a hospital with a sore throat normally but we thought the least they would do is tell us where the walk-in was for tomorrow. I'm so pleased we went there. Everyone was wonderful, from the receptionist, through to the Triage Nirse, the nurses who helped us and the doctor. All of them were exceptional, so friendly and just lovely. The triage nurse weighed him (4'4") took his temperature (he was quite hot), checked his pulse, heart rate etc and sent us back to reception to get our address and details. We didn't have to wait long before we were called in and we left Huffle and Small in the waiting room watching baseball.

The doctor checked his throat and said it was fine, as were his ears but when he checked his lungs he was not happy. He asked if he had asthma or ever had steroids - he hasn't. Smallest was then given antihistamine (his first ever swallowed pill), ventolin several times, plus the breathing test which he failed miserably blowing to only 50 when he should have got to 200. He had three different nebulisers and steroids that tasted like wee (Smallests words) followed by an ice pole to take the taste away, plus more blow tests and he finally got to 150/170. We were there for three hours with me texting Huffle as often as I could plus stepping out to the waiting room occassionally to update him. Although the doctor wasn't completely happy to let him go (I really thought he was going to admit him overnight) he let us leave with a ventolin inhaler and a prescription for more steroids. He has to take the inhaler every four hours for two days and then when needed and the steroids for two weeks and then we have to follow up with our doctor when we get home. The doctor said if he got any worse or we were concerned in any way, we were to go straight back to the hospital. He told Smallest to let me know if it felt weird at all. The steroids were supposed to make him wired and I expected to be up all night with him but he was so tired he soon went to sleep. I was told that he had a cold originally and a sore throat but that he was probably allergic to something in the cottage which had affected him, made him worse and brought on the asthma. Yesterday someone had a fire and this morning it stunk of the dying embers of a fire, it was difficult not to breathe it in. Plus if his room or the house is dusty, that can affect his allergies. Put all that together with five stupid idiots that chain smoke next to you!!!!!!! GRRRRRRRRRRRR.

Photo taken by Small trying to give him a moustache. Waiting to see the doctor. First nebuliser and an ice pole after the steroid

We came home and you could tell Small was really concerned for him and he even offered to to rub his cold arms for him. Wow! The boys went to bed, Huffle and I had a cup of tea and listened for Smallest coughing and trying to sleep. We feel awful that we didn't think of asthma but what can you do?????

Tomorrow we will have a lie-in, an easy relaxing day around the cottage (if no-one smokes or has a fire) and maybe some games (after we have picked up the prescriptions).

Oh my is it really only day 2 of our holiday?

 

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Thanks for dinner, it was horrid!

This blog was kindly brought to you by wifi borrowed from The Lady with the Matiffs.

We didn't hurry getting ready to go on holiday this morning. We got up, had some breakfast and Huffle slowly filled the car, the boys and I tried to get organised, well I think I did mainly, they just seemed to play and be silly. So excited.

We had a few things to get on the way from the pharmacy. Smallest was barking like a seal again and we needed Vitamin C tablets and I needed to get a prescription transferred from one pharmacy to another one close by. We finally left our house around 11am and were properly on our way by 11:30pm.

Unfortunately our Rental Man expected us to be at the cottage at 12 noon because he sent us an email saying that check-in and check-out was 12. We just assumed that meant anytime after 12 to get there and when we hadn't arrived at 12:48 we had an email from him asking if we were close. We weren't! We also hadn't eaten so we stopped for food too. That was our first mistake. Huffle and Smallest had chicken fingers which was supposed to be an appetizer but was huge and the only decent thing on the menu apparantly. I just realised the predictive text changed my word to a z appetizer and I'm confused as to whether it should be an S or a Z. Surely not a Z! Aargh I have been here too long, I have forgotten how to spell like an English person. I'm sure it's an S!!!!! Small had a burger which had plastic cheese and Small was disgusted by this fact. I had a Tuna melt. There was no cheese on mine so I was very jealous of Small's cheese plus they put celery in it and loaded it with tomatoes. YUK! On the menu it said came with real mayonnaise. Oooh look at you!!! They also gave him chocolate milk when he asked for Chocolate milkshake and they are two very different things! During the journey, Huffle drove, I started a sock and the boys played on their DS' and tablets.

On we went with our journey and another email from MrWhite (Small's name for him) who wanted to know what time we would arrive as he had things to do! We told him we would be there around 3pm. MrWhite was not pleased. We told him we weren't aware that check in meant GET THERE! He sent us another email to check exactly what time we would be there. We replied with "our GPS tells us we will arrive at 3:08pm". He seemed ok with that, in fact we arrived at 3:07pm WOW and he was waiting for us on the deck. He gave us a quick tour (very quick, it was very small) and then he left us to it. Actually he was very nice and apologised for being later than expected.

We unpacked the car, unpacked our bags, claimed our rooms and then attempted to log on to the wifi. Oh oh! The password wasn't working and we tried many variations on what it should be. Oh no, how will this family ever cope without wifi. As if that wasn't bad enough, the phone signal was non-existent too so we had NOTHING!

We wandered down to the beach which was across a small residential road and through a forest path that led 150feet down a slope and some pretty steep steps. We don't know if it is 150ft down or along, it could be both.

The beach was extremely private and rural with no one on it. There were lots of tree roots and a sandy beach with a really beautiful light blue water with a mainly sandy and stoney bottom. It looked like paradise. We only took a few things down there, one chair, a blanket and a few drinks. Despite the freezing cold water, the boys went straight in, swimming and body boarding (oh the waves MrsRumbleskins). The boys built me a dry stone miniature wall and practiced Karate Kid balancing on logs.

We found a stone that fit perfectly in Huffles ear - what are the chances of that?

We stayed for an hour or two and then made our way back up the gruelling steps to our cottage. Oh yes, our cottage, I haven't said anything about it. It is reminiscent of a caravan in its compactness. The deck outside is larger than the house itself which is one floor. The garden is nice and plentiful with room to run. There is a hammock and a bunky (a small wooden house that can sleep three people in thoug I was not happy letting either of the kids sleep in there). Tiny kitchen with a "carry on camping" style worktop, a bigger living room and three bedrooms with plastic folding doors. The bathroom has an interesting feature that means you can sit on the toilet, wash your hands and soak your feet in the bath, all at the same time. It is quite tight in there. There is no air conditioning but there is a small fan in each room. As of this evening we still couldn't get the wifi and MrWhite was contacting the internet provider tomorrow. Luckily this evening we met the lovely lady next door who has two huge Neopolitan Mastiffs that bark happily when they see us, who gave us her wifi password to use plus information about what to do where.

We went out for dinner and happened upon a restaurant we went to about three years ago but couldn't get in because it was too busy. Today it had room and we all had Manzerotti (Panzarotti or Calzone as we know it but MAN portion). It was huge but we knew we would take it home for another meal if we didn't eat it. Smallest was very tired and ate his Grilled Cheese quietly. We met a waitress who worked in Southampton for six months. She didn't like it much, something to do with the people but didn't want to tell us in case we knew anyone from there.

It was this big

On the way home we picked up some supplies for breakfast and lunch tomorrow. The wifi or phone signal didn't work in there either. I tried to post something on Facebook around 5pm and it got so far but kept cutting out. I tried all evening but gave up (this was befriend we had wifi from next door though we didn't want to be too greedy and haven't put it on my phone or Smallest's tablet yet.

 

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Grandma Mongst Gucci*

Happy Canada Day or Dominion Day as it used to called. A holiday for all. Everything is closed and the festivities begin. Apparantly today marks th date when Canada became a kingdom in its own right. Well Happy Birthday Canada. Up till today, there was a ban on fireworks because it has been so dry.

Photo borrowed from T'internet

 

A nice lie-in, no interruptions and rain, lots and lots of rain. It rained all day which was good for the garden and good for the fact we had lots of packing and cleaning to do so we didn't need the distraction of sunshine.

The boys are obviously over excited as there was lots of silliness, lots of tellings off and quite a bit of attitude. The morning was spent finding clothes and piling them up, finishing the last of the washing and drying (no line drying today BOO), choosing books, drying out rain soaked chairs etc. MrsRoyal came over to see where everything was that needed watering and eating - the vegetables are growing at a rate of knots, we will have nothing to come back to but at least they are growing well, even the raspberries are starting to go red.

The boys have played on their tablets, on the computer, on the Wii and on the piano. Huffle and I had a bit of leisure time where he watched the football (I supported Wales today and he supported Belguim) and I sat and altered my too long trousers that look like PJ's to everyone else in the house but they are so cool and comfy! I will wear them.

We managed a FaceTime with Grandma and admired her new Gucci glasses (Mongst* was a word she used on Hanging with Friends - silly word).

By 8pm all packing was done, washing dried and sorted, sewing finished, boys showered and sitting down finally began.

Holiday tomorrow.

 

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