Hula girls and pina coladas ...

Rarotonga was fantastic !!!

Following are 24 things I learnt while on holiday ...

1. Kassis love snorkelling (to the point where some days I spent more time in the water than the MOTH).

2. I still can't see the point in swimming for fun though.

3. Pina coladas are the BEST cocktail ever !!!

4. Bizarrely, non-alcoholic pina coladas taste even better.

5. Kassis cannot drive motor scooters (even though 14 year old school children can do so with ease)

6. Full body massages are really really good.

7. Until they get to the bit where they whack you really hard between the shoulder blades and wake you up !!

8. 4.00am starts are not fun.

9. Especially when you've been up 'til midnight the night before drinking cocktails and playing ping-pong.

10. Hula dancing is really really hard.

11. So is standing still in the same circle as crabs during crab racing night.

12. Overcast weather is great when it's still 26 degrees, cos no one gets sunburnt.

13. I didn't see a single spider, bug or insect the entire time I was there.

14. Although S was woken up by a gecko landing on her in the middle of the night.

15. The MOTH and I are going back next year ... by ourselves.

16. Fake tan wears off as unevenly as it goes on.

17. It's a good idea to wear socks until your feet aren't orange any more so you don't embarass your daughter.

18. I am, quite possibly, the only person in the history of the world to have come home from a tropical island holiday whiter than when I left.

19. There are six correct ways to tie a pareau (sarong).

20. I don't know any of them.

21. Fresh coconut juice is disgusting.

22. Fresh coconut is delicious.

23. The postcards we sent arrived home after we did.

24. I'm sure there were many more witty, clever, sparkling things I was going to add to the list, but I've forgotten them.