The European Vacation That Almost Was… (***A 20SB GUEST POST FROM KEZ!***)

Hey Helen!

Do you know about 20-Something Bloggers? It’s pretty awesome.  It’s for people in their 20s.  Who blog!  And we talk about bloggy things.  It’s great.  They do this thing every so often – a Blog Swap.  And if you are as lucky as I am, you get paired up with an awesome chick from the other side of the world and she writes a post on your blog, and you write one on hers.   So  Kez, my Awesomely Unprepared blog swap partner wants to write you a letter.  It’s really quite sweet.  So read it!  And if you have time, you should read her blog – Awesomely Unprepared.   She writes about life and learning and learning how to love getting thrown off track.  She’s gonna be a mamma soon and no matter how unprepared she thinks she is – I have a feeling her and her hubby are going to make for some awesome parents.  

xoxo

Lisa

Dear Helen,

Today (the day this guest post is published on this fine blog) is the day that my husband and I would have been up in the air (literally), headed for our European summer experience. It was to be the Contiki tour to end all Contiki tours (well not really – pretty sure they’re doing good business without us). We were going to spend 14 days travelling on a coach, occasionally stopping to cause mayhem and get lost in odd places (because I have no sense of direction and because we might have been intoxicated). It was going to be our reward for all the years we stayed at home (other than the occasional jaunt to Thailand) working hard and keeping a roof above our heads.

We got a fantastic deal at a travel expo and already I could imagine walking around in Rome eating my body weight in carbs. And same goes for Paris. My husband was planning his birthday for Monaco (apparently some boy crap involving cars happens there sometimes?) and I was so looking forward to shopping in London! Man, we would have had the most awesome Facebook photo albums to annoy our friends with! Actually, we would have been able to talk with our friends about that time we went to Rome and about how awesome the dress up parties were and the stuff we’d done that time in Germany (drink beer probably)…we would have understood. We too would have been able to have that smug air about us as we told our less fortunate, less travelled friends about “that time we were up the Eiffel Tower”. We had dreams!

Not long after paying the travel people the entire balance of the trip (they wanted it within 4 days of booking – holy hell), I did this thing where I peed on a little stick? Not just some random stick I found in the park under a tree. A home pregnancy test. I didn’t believe the two little stripes so I raced out to the shops (before my husband had time to blink) and bought another one – surely the first one was broken! When the fancy, expensive digital test flashed *pregnant pregnant pregnant* there was no denying it. We were/are knocked up!

We jumped up and down (well I was gently jumping up and down) with the joy of it all…and then it dawned on us. Would I really be able to fly long haul from Down Under to London in economy at 6 months pregnant? And even if that was quite viable (which I’m told it is), would I be able to get on and off a coach, run around several cities in Europe, and sleep in hostel accommodation (where being in the same room as my husband was not always guaranteed) without killing myself?! Not to mention being surrounded by drunken people, while I padded around the night clubs with my highly inappropriate baby bump! I am sure that you, Helen, would be able to do that whilst wearing a slinky body suit or glamourous ball gown…but me? I’m not that awesome. Just Awesomely Unprepared.
“Oh sorry guys, I’m having a quiet night in at the hostel tonight” I would have said, as I glared at my husband in a “Yes that means you too” way. Party pooper.

So, with heavy hearts we cancelled. Don’t get me wrong, we’re thrilled about the impending arrival into our family…we just missed out on a big rite of passage in between being clueless lovestruck teens and having a mortgage and a marriage! We skipped the Euro trip and went straight to “old” with kids!

Not to mention, I will never have a chance to meet you – something this blog tells me is like the holy grail of meeting people.

This summer we will have a brand new bundle of joy. Christmas will be filled with sunshine, sleep deprivation, vomit and poop (so not that different from usual). We’ll take our new baby boy to the beach for the first time where I will be paranoid about sunburn or sand getting into crazy places. I’ll probably be wearing some kind of caftan with a bathing suit from the 1800s (we’re not all Miranda Kerr you know). There will be breastfeeding, the occasional sneaky cocktail (oh stop judging) and friends everywhere. I will be sleep deprived and running on empty. But it will be fun. And I can’t wait.

I guess you might be able to figure out why my blog is called Awesomely Unprepared.

PS. Sorry that I am no good at photo editing. I guess that’s why I’ll never be your #1 fan. Also, I am not a righteous Dame.

Love Kez.