Comfort Zones

Kids are easy. It’s easy to be utterly delighted by them; to be led by their many moods and fall in with their sleep cycles. Travelling makes this easier too because there’s no nine to five, but then it’s also easier to lie awake at night thinking about the worst kind of scenarios, and worrying about whether to travel with an infant is a wise thing to do.

Then we get the weekly baby centre email that Viv subscribed to when we got pregnant: This week’s instalment entitled “Travelling with children”, and as always, it’s good stuff; and a nice little bit of serendipity to clear the mind (for now) of any doubts.

In the end, it’s not the child you have to worry about. They’re not out of their comfort zone, which consists of Mum, Dad, occasional changes of scene and a few familiar elements: The portable tent/cot we brought with us is invaluable for providing a place she knows as synonymous with sleep. On the whole this life is perfect for the little beast. She's got both parents around all the time, sees new things every day, gets cooed at and cuddled by waitresses wherever we go. You can’t say it’s really any different to what she knows, because frankly, she doesn’t really know enough to start making comparisons. No, this is her comfort zone, it’s really her parents who are out of theirs.

But then that’s travel for a start, and being a new parent. Combined, things are magnified, whether this is your awareness of your surroundings, the joy of experiencing new places, or the worries you would entertain in any case, lying in your bed at home trying to work it all out.

I was hard on Phuket in an earlier post, when I said there was little to recommend it. But they were first impressions a little exaggerated by a long flight and a fair bit of worry. We’ve ended up doing very little here in the way of exploring, but it’s been extremely relaxing and has got us on our way through a very easy, lazy, friendly, and finally comfortable zone.

If you haven't got anything nice to say ...

… first impressions of Phuket (as the saying goes) leave me speechless. Could be that most things that are free (this side trip to Phuket was thrown in with our travel fair Europe flights) aren’t good for you, or you just don’t appreciate them because they’re free. But if we only came here because the travel was free; because it seemed like a pretty place to break up a long haul flight with; just to eat, drink and sit by a pool for a couple of days, then there’s no point me complaining about how others have exploited and continue to exploit this place. So if you haven’t got anything nice to say …

Speedy Edie

965km per hour ground speed. Altitude 11583 metres, which means we’re going faster through the air than 965kms, but I can’t do the maths. I don’t know if it’s because I am too tired, too lazy, or because I simply don’t have all the information I need. I sit thinking about it. I might need to know the radius of the earth. I look over at Edie who is asleep in a basinet seat – wonderful things basinet seats. I know we will miss them on the return journey when she’s too big for them. On the flight to Bangkok Edie sleeps like a twig (a small log). Neither Viv nor myself sleep all that well, on account of being new parents. Shame really, with the early boarding; the loads of legroom; the spare seat. All the luxuries afforded us by the presence of the small one; things you dream to have on any flight, yet that twig scratches at our nerves. We probably think she’s going to explode at any moment.

But it’s not until boarding the second flight to Phuket that that happens. Fair enough too. We’ve waited for about five hours in the airport, and by that time we’ve broken the first rule of parenting three times: never wake a sleeping child. But it’s quick and violent and once she lets everyone on the plane know who has the loudest voice, it’s over, and she’s back to being a twig.

Pants on Holiday

Blogging, eh? What's it all about? Well in this case it's all about me, my lovely partner Viv, and our daughter Edie "Pants" Metherall, and more specifically, it's about our travels together over the next few months. Well that's that. An introduction. Just a sampler, for me more than anyone else really, and really so there's just something to read here when I now direct friends and family to this otherwise empty space and so they won't bother me or berate me about my not setting it up, or if I have, which as you can see I have, pester me about there being nothing here to see or read, when clearly there is. You're reading it! So welcome and come again.