Always take spare clothes!

Having negotiated the motorway network of the UK, I have returned back down south following half term. Due to a week away and an incredibly busy 2 weeks leading up to it, my cupboards were bearer than Mrs Hubbard (terrible cliche I know but what's a girl to do?). This means a trip to the dreaded supermarket to stock up.

Now I HATE shopping at the best of the times but supermarket shopping reaches an all time low on the list of things I'd rather do in life. Sticking pins in my eyes, listening to Katie Melua and watching football beats it hands down. Nevertheless, it has to be done so I steel myself for the ordeal and prepare for battle with a trolley.

I'm not sure if the phenomenon I'm about to describe is a National thing or whether it's just confined to this strange little part of London I currently call my address. Everywhere I looked there were families on what looked suspiciously like a day out! Why? Why? Why? would you take your family to Sainsco for a Sunday afternoon treat? Now before the single parents prepare to lynch me, I realise that there are many people who have no choice but to drag their children around the supermarket, attacking my ankles with pushchairs and remaining blissfully unaware of the pick and mix that has been steadily consumed by their offspring. And this rant is clearly not meant at them (although if you could prevent your buggy causing permanent ankle damage I would be very grateful!). No, I'm referring to the whole families, all three generations of them who arrive on mass in the people carriers. Granparents, parents, children, family dog, budgie (ok I made the budgie up) who all disembark from the vehicle and prepare themselves for a jolly spiffing afternoon in the frozen food ailse!

When I was a child our family days out were somewhat different. For starters we tended to head for places like the park, the forest, the hills, the beach. In fact anywhere that had vast open space, fresh air and ideally water (but more of that later). My mum was a truly amazing lady who veered eratically from complete organsiation to downright chaos and the fun was you never knew which was going to happen next. For example, she would lovingly prepare sandwiches of all varieties and keep them in the freezer ready for our frequent Sunday trips out. However, remembering to remove them from the freezer the night before always seemed fraught with problems. Resulting in screaming sensitive teeth as you found your way into the middle of a still frozen ham and pickle butty half way up Rivington Pike.

Sometimes these said butties were actually consumed in true picnic style: on a rug, with the sun shining and the birds singing. But most of the time the convoy of family cars (yes we took all generations too) had to park close enough to enable windows to be rolled down and sandwiches to be hurled through the rain in the general direction of the occupants of the other car. Don't you just love the British Weather? It never deterred us though and if there were an olympic medal for the family most determined to enjoy a picnic no matter what, the family Little Miss Sunshine would definitely have beaten everyone else. Even when we returned to the cars in the little village of Lagharne and found that a flash flood was in danger of washing them away, we still managed to smile.

These frequent days out were always filled with laughter and maybe this is nostalgia creeping in now but I can honestly say that the adults appeared to enjoy it just as much as the kids. We lost countless footballs up in trees and our spare clothes would inevitably be used as myself and to be fair, more often my brother would find a stretch of water, stream, lake, puddle, mud slide to explore. No day out was complete without a change of clothes. And to this day my brother feels hard done by if he has a day out that doesn't involve getting either very dirty or very wet!

Whatever the weather, we certainly had more fun than those families shuffling around Asdrose trying to decide between chickpeas or cake. So take my advice and spend your Sunday afternoon on a family day out - not in a supermarket.

Just don't forget your spare clothes!