Our trip to Aladdin was a work of genie-us to break up those rain-soaked holidays!

The school break dragged a little bit in your columnist’s household and a musical trip to the capital proved the perfect distraction …  even with all the merchandising madness

HOW did the Easter holidays go for everyone then? I’d probably describe ours as having gone ... slowly.

I definitely wouldn’t say they whizzed by at the speed of light or anything. No, more like they moved along at a nice leisurely pace, with lots of time stretching ahead to fill up (we got excited about the Stations of the Cross on Good Friday, that will give an indication of where we were at).

While I wouldn’t say I was jealous of people who chose to go away for the break, I’d have to admit to having vague feelings of dislike towards them (especially if their social media feeds showed they had ventured overseas – even if the likes of Spain and Portugal were uncharacteristically wet too.)

• Ah no, I jest. I’m bigger than that. Sort of. All those walks in the rain pretending we were having a great time were really character-building. And the chocolate helped.

• Seriously though, I actually love nothing more than pottering around at home and am trying to instil in the younger generation a realisation that we don’t have to be doing ‘stuff’ all the time on our down time.

• I’ve my work cut out for me as they (mainly my own child) have high expectations of life. For example, at a recent coffee morning in our local hall, someone said there was going to be a special guest.

It turned out to be the Easter Bunny, but my smallie said she was a bit disappointed as she had hoped it might be Taylor Swift. Hah! I love the sense of optimism though. Long may that last. For the record, I was impressed by the
bunny.

• We did have one outing over the break when we ventured to the ‘big smoke’ to see Aladdin in the Bord Gáis Theatre in Dublin. We were coming at things from a low base and had little to compare it to (just the Christmas panto really) so we were absolutely blown away by it from start to end, and by anyone’s standards it was genuinely a really slick performance.

• I’d very much recommend going to see it if the opportunity arises.

One small bit of advice, though, and that would be to try to swerve away from the merchandise area to the right of the lobby. We were only in the door when my smallie made a beeline straight to the stand, where she honed in on one particular necklace, adorned with a genie’s lamp. Very nice, I chimed, buoyed up by the excitement of being out and about (and the glass of wine I’d had at lunchtime), until I spotted the €40 price tag.

• Instead, I veered her towards a pen and was about to claim it as a stroke of genius on my part when I spotted that it cost €12 ... ok, for full disclosure it was €18. At that stage, though, there was a queue forming behind me and I was running out of options (and I couldn’t see the price on the fake flying carpet) so I had to go with it.

My husband made me promise not to tell that story to anyone so if you see him, say nothing. Jesus wept.

• Anyway, all in all, it was a great day out and I’ve now declared myself a huge fan of shows. When I’m not researching adult tap dancing classes (so I can be in a chorus in a show myself, obviously) I’m planning trips to Broadway (here I come).

On the way home Emma took a trip to Kildare Village outlet. (Photo: Shutterstock)

We stopped in Kildare Village on the way home (who can resist veering off at Exit 13?) and I couldn’t believe how much it has expanded since I was last there. I’m clearly after becoming pure country to my core and I also couldn’t get over the amount of people out and about shopping at 7.30pm on a Saturday night – and not shopping for bread and milk either or a last minute Lotto ticket. As they sang in Aladdin, it really was ‘a whole new world’ to a bumpkin like me. As usual I got totally overwhelmed and just went to the Lindt shop – well, it was Easter, after all!

• We were home in no time as the road is so great. It’s almost so good that you don’t want to veer off and lose time so we skipped our customary stop at the Horse and Jockey. Anyway at that stage we were all feeling a bit ill from too much chocolate (and the realisation that I had spent €18 on a bog-standard pen).

• It’s hard to believe it’s April already, isn’t it, and that one quarter of the year has gone by? With the exception of the two weeks of Easter holidays the time is flying.
All those bank holidays we’ve enjoyed since January certainly helped – we’ve nothing now until May, which will take a bit of getting used to – five-day weeks? What are they again? The change in time has me absolutely floored (throws me every time, regardless if it’s forwards or backwards we’re going), so once I catch up with myself I’m looking forward to the brighter evenings ahead.

• In the meantime, I’ll be spending my free time trying to find the €18 pen whose location is currently unknown (yes, it’s missing).
Send prayers, or help ... and maybe some leftover Easter eggs while you’re at it.