Short version:
So on Thursday the 2nd September we took the boys on their first aeroplane ride to France. They were very good. David sat on Neil's knee and spent the whole flight looking out of the window. I had Joe who spent the whole flight either banging on his window (oh yeah, we had a whole row of seats each as the flight was empty!) or pulling the tray up and down! We spent a lot of time at the beach on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and flew back home again late on Sunday evening, we all had a great time.
Long Version:
The weekend started well, we left home at the appointed time and hit no traffic on the M25 on the way to Gatwick. We found the long stay car park and a fabulous wide space for the car. I parked the car and opened the boot to get the buggies out for the boys. I had to drag a couple of bags off the top of the buggies to get to them and as I was doing this said to Neil "where did you put the changing bag?"
"I thought you put it in!" he said desperately. "I thought you put it in" I said desperately. "You always put it in!" he said... "You said you were putting the bags in the car!" I said... actually, all of this was said and not shouted, it was quite a civilised conversation really considering the changing bag contained my purse with my credit card in it which was needed in France for our car hire!
Neil had one of his little Drama Queen moments, where he span around with his hands clutching his head whilst bending in the middle. I waited til he finished his moment. Then said, "let's not waste time having a hissy fit, let's think about this. What's in the bag?"
We came up with my purse, bibs, spoons, beakers, nappies, wipes and the boys' picnic lunch so not too bad then.... but then we remembered.... The CAMERA! Oh no! Neil had asked me not to bring my big new camera as it would take up a lot of space in our already limited baggage allowance, so we'd popped the little point and shoot in the changing bag. Gutted, absolutely gutted. We both checked our watches only to discover that I'd forgotten to put mine on and also the fact that we didn't have time to make a run back home to fetch the changing bag... "It's ok!" I said whipping my hand into the air "I have the iPhone, we can take pictures on that!" So that drama was over then. Neil called Europcar and explained the situation to them. They said so long as we had another credit card and my driving licence, we'd be ok. We did, so that was ok.
So we popped the boys in the buggies, clipped them together with our buggy clips, got the rest of the luggage (blimey you need a lot for a weekend when you have twins) and set off for the bus stop. Luckily the bus was not busy and the driver let us on board without collapsing the buggies. Soon we were at the terminal and hopped, as elegantly as you can when you have twins, two suitcases and one piece of hand baggage, off the bus (don't forget the changing bag was at home, so I didn't have any handbaggage!) I clipped the buggies back together again and Neil acquired a trolley for the cases, we were off to check in... along the way, many people marvelled at the fact that we have twins... yes, it's not unusual for us, please mind out of the way was what I was thinking as I had to ask umpteen people to excuse me so I could get by. Two single buggies clipped together are a lot wider than you'd think!
The luggage was checked in and off we set to go through security. Ooooookay, so pop the one piece of handbaggage on the conveyor, pop the phones and watch in a box on the conveyor, remove shoes, remove babies from buggies give them both to their mother and collapse the buggies, place the buggies on the conveyor, Neil goes through the thingy and beeps... oh cripes, he forgot to take off his belt so he's searched... meanwhile I am still holding two babies... about 42lb worth of babies, they're getting a bit heavy but I have to answer the following questions...
"Do you have any liquids Madam?"
"No."
"Nothing for the babies madam?"
"No"
"Are you sure madam?"
"Yes... we left the changing bag at home... all the liquids are in that on the kitchen table"
"Oh Dear"
"yes" Finally I can go through the thingy and even though I'm carrying two babies I don't beep! Halleluliah... what's that? you want to search all three of us? Sigh, ok. So one baby given to Neil, Davy is searched and given to Neil, I'm searched and Joe is given to me to be searched... Yaaay! the searching is over, just need to put the buggies up again now. Are you exhausted yet? We were!
So, we were through security... next stop Boots. Thank Goodness for Boots. It has all you need when you have left your changing bag at home. Baby food, spoons, bibs, beakers, nappies, wipes and nappy sacks as well as lunch for Mummy and Daddy... oh throw in some suncream as well... Shush Joe, stop whinging, we're nearly finished.... Oh for goodness sakes, who's chatting to him now? Oh, it's Esther Rantzen! She's amusing my child while I shop... marvellous. She's a good egg and much shorter and slimmer in real life! I wonder where she was off to for her holidays!
Finally we could sit down and relax for a while. We fed the boys, who seemed to enjoy their jarred baby mush rather than the philadelphia and carrot sandwiches they were supposed to be eating. We had a quick wander around Duty Free and then meandered our way over to the departure gate. Luckily the plane was mostly empty and once we were on board, which was worry free thanks to the Connecta Slings we sat down to enjoy our flights. David is a little plane spotter and is frequently to be found waving at aeroplanes through our living room window... (we live about 2 miles from the end of the Heathrow runway). He was beside himself with all the planes he could see. I don't think he actually realised he was on one himself though. Indeed, his first word was "Ayer" which is short for Aeroplane. Joe was sitting with me and spent most of his flight pulling his tray up and down or banging on the window. They were both very good.
An hour later and we were there... La Rochelle Airport in France! We got through immigration very quickly and soon had our hire car and two car seats.... the man said he was very busy so if we could see any scratches on the car to come back and let him know... meanwhile, he hopped into another car and vanished... anyway, never mind, we put the car seats in the car along with the boys and all the luggage and set off for Auntie Bridget's house on Ile de Re....
More to come later.....
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