The Great Underpants Emergency

Early tomorrow morning my son goes on his end-of-primary-school trip. He's going to Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Fuertaventura, La Graciosa, and Tenerife - all in 12 days. He should have a great time. (He'd better! It's good value for money, but it's still not cheap.)

The trouble is, he doesn't have all that many clothes because he grows out of things in three months. And this trip means he'll be away from the washing machine for almost two weeks.

Cue for a clothes buying spree. We've been buying trousers and T shirts for weeks, a couple at a time. Then I realized I'd forgotten to count his underpants. Sure enough, we were short.

So this morning I went on an emergency underpants hunt. The shops have plenty of underpants in other sizes, both larger and smaller, but his size, and the size below, were pretty much sold out.

Then the penny dropped. Something like 70% of Palmeran kids his age are going on similar trips. And every other mother had the foresight to get the underpants good and early. I was left hunting for the dregs.

Eventually I found some that looked about right, but the label said they were too big. So I crossed my fingers and bought them.

Hallelujah, they fit. We don't have to go shopping again!