Cyprus

I took Harry and Rebecca to Cyprus for a week last month.


I thought it was about time that I bit the bullet (so to speak) and take them on a holiday. I say bite the bullet as I guess the thought of being away with them and being the single Mum was a bit daunting.

My first mistake was booking a package deal without knowing the airline carrier - booking confirmation advised it was easyJet!! Great! I hate flying at the best of times and a budget airline did not fill me with confidence! I didn't realise that they do not provide seat allocations or anything, its basically like getting on a bus! Again not a problem unless you are flying alone with two children! Luckily as Harry is under 5 we got priority boarding and managed to get onto the plane fairly quickly so were all sat together.

The flight was quite a bit different from my previous flight to India (Emirates business class!) and I spent the first five minutes wondering where the stewardess was with my take-off Champagne! Lol!!

The flight was ok, and even Harry was fairly well behaved (despite needing to pee every ten minutes! No fear of DVT on a flight with Harry as you are constantly up and down to the loo!).

Our hotel was in Larnaca, so just a very short transfer from the airport by taxi. We had a great room on the ground floor over-looking the pool. The sun was shining so we were set for a great holiday in the sun!

The first day was spent with the children jumping in and out of the pool and eating as much ice-cream as they could! The following day, the Friday, Harry seemed a bit subdued and not quite himself. By lunchtime it became apparent that he was unwell and was complaining of ear-ache (something that fills me with dread as I have had problems with my ears from the age of 5 and therefore feel very bad for anyone with ear-ache, one of the worst places to have an ache!).

This quickly escalated and Harry was screaming as it hurt so much. I therefore arranged a taxi to take me to a local private hospital to have Harry checked over. Luckily Rebecca had made friends with two girls and their parents agreed to look after her whilst I took Harry to the hospital.

The taxi drove at crazy miles an hour, which for once I was comfortable with as Harry was so upset I wanted him to be seen as soon as possible.

We arrived at the hospital after about 15 minutes and Harry was seen immediately. A doctor came and cleaned out his ear and flushed it out - apparently there was a big build up of ear wax (yuk!). Harry was screaming the whole time and asking the doctor to stop hurting him. As a Mum having to watch on it was horrible. I think I was crying more than Harry. Once it was all done the poor little guy look very pale and scared, but was relieved to leave the hospital. We headed back to the hotel and picked-up a prescription on-route for some ear drops.

The next day Harry seemed almost back to normal and was begging to go in the pool. So we splashed around in the shallow end as I didn't want him to get water in his ears after yesterdays drama! However later that afternoon he was crying saying he was unwell again. This time I asked the hotel to call a doctor out to see him. The doctor luckily arrived very quickly and after checking Harry out confirmed that he also had an ear infection. He then kindly went out and collected anti-biotics and dropped them off at the hotel for Harry.

By the following evening the anti-biotics had kicked-in and Harry was back to his usual mad-self!

The rest of our holiday then followed quite a nice gentle routine. We would get-up in the morning and have some breakfast. Harry and Becs would then go to the hotel's kids club from 10am to 12pm. We would then play in the pool (with the majority of the hotel kids!) before having some lunch on the beach. More swimming and jumping in the pool before kids club again 4pm til 6! Kids club times where great - I would laze by the pool with my book and a glass of wine (bliss!).

The end of the holiday was a little disappointing as I would definitely miss the sun and time with Becs and Harry. However, I was looking forward to getting home and having a grown-up conversation with someone who didn't always question why I was away solo! (Oh is your husband joining you for the second week was the usual lead into people being nosey about my situation!). However all in all it was ok and definitely not scary so Harry and Bec can breath a sigh of relief as I will be taking them away again!