LAURA CARTLEDGE Give me a break! I'm worn out from organising my holiday..

Maybe that is part of their cunning plan to make you feel even more relaxed once you are there?

By the time you read this I will hopefully be in France.

Enjoying a long weekend of eating cheese, staring at nice buildings and trying to get by with barely enough French to earn me ‘null points’.

But right now that feels a long way away. I don’t know why it has caught me by surprise. We took hours scrolling websites, working our way through a mountain of brochures and reading reviews to make sure we got the best deal possible.

Perhaps that was the problem – we put so much legwork into booking that I thought the rest would just magically fall into place.

However waking up the day before departure it dawns on me that is not the case.

The suitcase I unearthed from the dark depths of under my bed has still failed to pack itself.

Worse still, the clothes I want to take are, inevitably, at the bottom of the washing basket. My shoes, instead of pairing themselves and standing in a row ready for selection, have decided a game of hide and seek would be fun.
So I stand there flustered. With my passport in one hand, sun cream in the other and odd sandals on – while my partner tries not to laugh.

Of course he put some boxers in a bag and was done ages ago.

And to think last week when I felt really smug and sorted because I had bought a sun hat.

Which I just hope looks more cocktails-on-a-cruise than brit-who-gets-burnt-too-easily.

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