In the days before children, when I had money and time at my disposal, I would have done the following to prepare for a little time away during the Summer months:

– Get hair coloured and cut.

– Get waxed from head to toe (including toes as hairy toes in flipflops is never a good look).

– Exfoliate, exfoliate, exfoliate. Moisturise, moisturise, moisturise.

– Go shopping for a few new bits to add to the holiday wardrobe.

– Spend a few hours reading up on the best places to eat and drink at destination and find out about any exhibitions etc going on while I’m there.

– Write myself a checklist of what to do pack.

Nowadays, it’s more like this:

– Try to allow enough time in shower on day of travel to wash hair.

– Shave armpits whilst mentally noting not to pack any skirts as legs are currently in a scary state of waxy white coated in a fine film of fur.

– Exfoliate? Remind me what that is again?

– Wash my one pair of jeans that fit, and are not wearing away at the inner thigh, in time to wear on day of travel. Wearing wet jeans is uncomfortable and I can’t be risking shrinkage by using the tumble drier.

– Book long stay parking at the airport.

– Write a ‘How to survive solo parenting’ manual for Bird.

Ah, how times have changed. And just to remind myself again quite how much they’ve changed, here’s a pic of my holiday legs circa 2007. I will not be publishing a pic of my Paris holiday legs this weekend, don’t worry fellow Instagrammers!