Day 47 (and the last day) of the summer holidays: The kids have been piled in and out of the car on six separate occasions today to head to yet another fun filled activity. Each trip undoubtedly ends with “can we go home yet?” as the excitement wears off and they suss that I’ve again stung them with a cheap-skate trip to the beach or park. But isn’t that what summer holidays are about? Filling your days with wholesome, outdoorsy activities that feed your parents’ souls, make for cracking Instagram updates and will, eventually my little cherubs, make for joyous, nostalgic memories.
When I look back on my childhood, it was a much quieter one than my children are being subjected to. I was an only child with a small, close knit family – the kind that were civilised enough to venture on a nine hour, family car journey every summer to visit my aunt and uncle in Scotland, without feeling like all sanity might be lost by the time we hit the M25. It was on one of these mammoth escapades that my tale unfolded…
Being an amenable, happy-go-lucky, self-amusing child (my mother might chose different adjectives!) I’d happily while away the hours in the back of my Grandma’s rather funky, green Range Rover (she was pretty gangster for 1990!) staring out the window at the changing scenery, weaving more friendship bracelets than I had arm space and… this is where I should have perhaps stopped.
After plucking at my booster seat for some time, I managed to extract a small piece of foam. As any child of 6 would do, or at least the ones I know, I proceeded to stick said piece of foam in and out of my ear. In and out it went, as I listened to it crackle and muffle the constant whoosh of the M1; then yes, you can foresee the predictability of this story that my 6 year old self could not see coming – it vanished into my ear canal for 3 years! After confessing to numerous adults and doctors that I’d been somewhat of a silly-Billy – not only did they not believe me, but even thorough inner-ear investigations led the doctors to believe I simply had “a build up of wax”. Luckily, a nimble fingered 9 year old me found a pair of tweezers and retrieved the rancid piece of foam from somewhere close to my cochlea. Needless to say, the semi-deafness, along with the life-long lesson of not shoving things in your nose and ears etched that car journey into my memory forever!
This post has been in collaboration with Kwik-Fit and their Nostalgia Lane initiative. They’re giving TWO lucky readers the chance to win £150 each of Amazon vouchers to stock up on your nostalgic favourites , to bring the family together on your next road trip. All you have to do is head HERE and tell them your memorable road trip – Good Luck! T&C’s apply.
