Don't surprise the kids.

Made it all the way to security at the airport. They didn't suspect a thing, they thought they were waving me off. Then we handed them their boarding passes.....we thought it would be a brilliant surprise...but let's just say we didn't get the reaction we thought we'd get. In fact let's be clear here, don't suprise an 11 year old and a 13 year old with a trip to London at the last minute. When your world is just slightly higher up on the aspergers spectrum than your average joe, you do need a disproportionate bit of warning. You need to know what, when, why and how in advance. Parenting fail 101. When we convinced them we were staying in St Albans and not London and we had a date with David Attenborough on Sunday, they started to warm to the idea. Of course it didn't help that Sam got whisked to the side immediately by customs for a search. And then poor Dave had to put up with his wifelet almost fainting dramatically amidst the bank holiday mayhem that was the easyjet pointless queues of despair. But we got through all that, painkillers and food having worked their Magic, and eventually arrived in deepest Hertfordshire at the sanctuary that is Mo and Graham's house, to be enveloped in midnight cheese and wine, while the kids fell comatose into sleep, ready for some southern adventures on the morrow.