PART ONE
"BEEP... BEEP... BEEEP" chimes the school bell, and it's the last day of school before the February half-term. That familiar buzz of relief amongst everyone, teachers and children alike. I get the school bus home, with no particular plans for the holidays, all I knew was that I was thrilled to have a week off school. As I approach my house I can see my dad balancing on the side of our car, arguing with an unresponsive roofbox. Next thing you know, my Dad jumps down and he rubs his hands together (this is the only sign of excitement my Dad shows) telling us we are going skiing and that we leave in half an hour! Half an hour..... WHAT?!!? But oh my god- yes, skiing!!!
And now for the madness that rushes through any home before a holiday- where's the passports? have you done the insurance? who has the key for the chalet? the directions? The only difference here is that we had half an hour to do the "holiday prep"that some people may do weeks before departure- not if you're a Wapshare. No, no.
Everyone sorted? Seat belts on? LETS GO! And the journey begins, we're off to Switzerland, never been skiing there before- how very exciting. Although, that means a veryyyyy long time in the car. Oh, well. It's in the Sat Nav... we'll be there before we know it. In fact- we have two sat navs- one that the landlord lent us and one built in to the car... We'll be fine.
Or will we? After driving along French motorways for what felt like an eternity we pulled over at a service station. I thought that I would have a look at the Sat Nav to see how far we have to go, with which (don't ask me why) I decided to take the memory card out of the back... I mean, I put it back straight away, but that was already too late. For some reason, apparently if you take a memory card out of a Sat Nav then it has the same effect as a Factory Reset. Uh oh... I've lost all of the information- och- it's fine, at least we have our own sat-nav... phew, that was a close one!
We seemed to be making quite good progress. The Sat Nav finally announces, "take the next exit" and we all begin to feel slightly revived at the thought of nearly being there and no longer being stuffed in to the confines of this car.
After driving along Swiss side roads for what seems like an eternity (approx. 3 hours) we begin to feel as if we are going in circles- I recognise that tree- I recognise that shop- Hey, I'm sure we have been here before. So we pull over and go in to a shop to purchase a trustworthy map. Whilst doing this, my mum this time, decided to have a fiddle with the Sat Nav, and this time- we find out that the reason for our "countryside detour" was the settings on the machine being "AVOID MOTORWAYS AND TOLL ROADS"...............
With this easily corrected, we found our way back to the main road, and weeventually arrived at our destination. Ah, bliss.
We seemed to be making quite good progress. The Sat Nav finally announces, "take the next exit" and we all begin to feel slightly revived at the thought of nearly being there and no longer being stuffed in to the confines of this car.
After driving along Swiss side roads for what seems like an eternity (approx. 3 hours) we begin to feel as if we are going in circles- I recognise that tree- I recognise that shop- Hey, I'm sure we have been here before. So we pull over and go in to a shop to purchase a trustworthy map. Whilst doing this, my mum this time, decided to have a fiddle with the Sat Nav, and this time- we find out that the reason for our "countryside detour" was the settings on the machine being "AVOID MOTORWAYS AND TOLL ROADS"...............
With this easily corrected, we found our way back to the main road, and we