A couple of days ago my family and I were spending a very rare evening together.It’s not a usual occurrence, so when it does happen we do like to have a bit of a laugh.

Later on this year my youngest daughter is off on a school trip to Spain and we were discussing how much we will all miss her – NOT.

It really got me thinking about my school days and in particular school trips, although they were never as glamorous as a trip to Spain.

However a UK short breaks trip was the limit of my very first (and last) school holiday when we visited Wales. Glamorous it wasn’t. As I recall we stayed in some dreadful caravans, which were stuck in the middle of nowhere and had no heating whatsoever. The company the school had booked the holiday with was dubbed as a UK activity holidays specialist. They have actually gone out of business now, and to be honest that doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. They had absolutely no idea about anything, and the activities they planned for us all were atrocious. One of the activities we had to do was canoeing on the lake and we also had to learn how to rotate our canoe so at one point we were submerged in the water and then we had to right ourselves. Now this itself was pretty rubbish, but it was the midst of January, so imagine how freezing cold the water was. We also had to take part in mountain climbing. This was pretty scary as the mountains were full of snow and ice and for us youngsters it was really dangerous.

At least I can be confident that when my daughter goes to Spain the weather should be pretty decent. I just hope she doesn’t get up too much mischief.

Whilst she is away in the summer I am thinking of returning to Wales for a short break. This time though I will not be staying in some damp and smelly caravan, holiday cottages Wales are my preferred choice of accommodation and I intend to book one with all the mod cons and enjoy all that Wales has to offer me.