Scribbler in Seville

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Now that I have an official, paid blog, about living in Andalucia , it has finally spurred me into action to revive my own personal one, which I have been incredibly, shockingly lazy about writing. It's been years now since I wrote a post. Many, many times I would lie in bed at night, before going to sleep (for about 30 seconds, on average) and think, that thing I read/heard/saw today, would be great to blog about. Then of course I'd fall asleep, forget about it and, in any case, not get around to doing anything as wasteful as spending time writing about myself. When it comes to self-indulgence and spare time, I prefer a hot bath any day.

Now, it's 1am and I am going on holiday in a few hours. I should, by all common sense, be asleep. But being a bonehead, I have decided to choose this moment resurrect Scribber in Seville. Partly inspired by some amazing Mummy blogs I have read recently – some were amazing because of extraordinary, moving experiences which they described, and some just because they were everyday things written about in a funny and insightful way that made me think, I love reading this woman's blog. I want to do one too.

Suffice it to say for now that the suitcase is stuffed to overflowing, the beach bags are packed with hats, sunglasses, suncream, sunsuits, towels, sarongs – and that's just mine. The Thomas the Tank Engine magazine is hidden in the in-car entertainment bag (toys, books, CDs) as my ace to trump any travel-boredom tantrum. I've even remembered to leave out the passports ready to go, quite a feat for someone who managed to get halfway to Gibraltar before realising that they'd forgotten their ID.

For anyone who's interested, Lola is still nearly walking, gabbling a lot, smiling a lot and being a stroppy cow when I'm trying to feed her. Zac is by turns sweet and thoughtful, handing Lola her water, and bruto – shoving it in her mouth when she clearly doesn`t want it. He loves Thomas the Tank Engine, Tigger, flowers, butterflies, horses, dogs and spotting Zs.

As I am the only driver in the family, I had better go and get some sleep now. I'm not known for my pleasant nature when I haven't had enough rest. Look out family.

Holiday? Relax? With two small children? The most I can hope for is that everyone eats their meals and goes to sleep when they should (unlike me), and that I get the odd five minutes to read The Week or some trashy mag from one of those great international newsagents on the Algarve. Well I can dream, can't I?