There's nothing like a relaxing family holiday, is there? And this was nothing like a relaxing family holiday. As usual we packed off to a sunny Spanish island with our two kids - meeting their cousins and family out there. The eight of us - four parents and four children - do this every August for a week-and-a-half of splashing about in the pool and the sea and enjoying a good few cervezas and sangrias.
But Thompson family holidays are never without drama. Grandad's parting statement as he dropped us off at Manchester Airport a couple of weeks back was: "No hospitals or doctors this time, please." Famous last words, LancsLive reports.
A couple of years ago, our eldest had a nasty incident in one of the hotel restaurants - again in Majorca - and ended up with a worrying cut close to his eye. That was swimming ruled out for a week - and us with a costly trip to the local medics. READ MORE : Oasis reunion latest: All we know with 'Heaton Park and Wembley gigs set for 2025' Last summer, I needed stitches in my leg the night before our flight following a gardening accident - then ended up having to limp to a walk-in centre in Tenerife when the wound flared up after swimming.
And this holiday was no different. Both kids needed to see the hotel doctor - one after crashing into a bar table and sustaining a gruesome gash on their forehead, while the other needed antibiotics after getting 'swimmer's ear'. Amazingly, none of this spoiled their holiday.
They battled on - and so did we -.