My sister's holidays

I have never known anybody have so many holidays as my sister. Even before she retired, she and husband No. 3 went away four or five times a year. Now they've revved up and having spent Christmas away, they then went away for another three weeks skiing in the Southern French Alps. They've been back less than three weeks and now they are off horse-riding in Uruguay. The taxi is coming for them at 3 am (groan!) to whisk them to Terminal 3.

Last year they spent five weeks in the Himalayas and climbed to Everest Base Camp. Talk about intrepid. They're no spring chickens, either, being 61 and 67 apiece. Wish I was half so fit! As for me, I haven't had a holiday for five years. This is partly due to Mr Grumpy's strokes, which left me with nobody to go away with (and I couldn't leave him, either), partly to do with the fact that my favourite hotel in Turkey closed, and a large part to do with the fact that my stomach was too unpredictable to plan ahead.

Now I am on Mebeverine (I think; packet is downstairs so can't check) for IBS, following my visit to the GP on Monday. I do hope it will work. If it does, it will transform my life as at last I shall be able to make arrangements - and keep them!

PS. One thing I forgot to mention is that (now don't forget that this isn't my house, and if it was, it would be arranged more sensibly) both guest rooms contain one single bed apiece. This is a converted bungalow and Mr G sleeps upstairs in solitary splendour, on my double mattress as three years ago I decamped to one of the single beds because of his habit of falling asleep watching telly. I can only sleep in perfect peace and he snores as well. AND gets up at 5 am, whereas I tend to go to bed at 12 and rise at 8-ish.

So it suits me much better to sleep alone. But as my sister and her hubby will be in a guest room each, that leaves me to share with Mr G. I have already moved the following upstairs: eyeshade; earplugs; half a sleeping tablet, a relic from a Spanish holiday when you used to be able to buy them over the counter; a bottle of water; my book (doorstep thick copy of Wolf Hall which I ordered from the library at a cost of 50p, much cheaper than buying the book itself). Perhaps I should add a large bottle of gin to the list! Next door's cat is mountaineering up my back so I have to stop typing. More tomorrow...