Isle of Wight was perfect for our first family holiday | Cheryl Gibbs

But I would never have thought of the Isle of Wight as a holiday if I’m honest – you can literally see it from across Southsea.

To me a holiday has usually resulted in a long haul flight abroad to somewhere exotic, sipping cocktails and relaxing on a sun lounger in the sun. And we were supposed to go on our first overseas holiday in June to celebrate Matt’s 40th but because of coronavirus it got cancelled, so a trip to the isle of Wight replaced it instead.

While I’d usually call a hop over to the island a ‘mini-break’ or ‘weekend away’, we went with ‘holiday’ or ‘holibob’. We really made the most of a couple of days’ change of scenery and luckily we were blessed with lovely weather.

I was so excited to take Harley on the ferry and it didn’t disappoint – she loved it! We took the car over on Wightlink and it’s been a good couple of years since I’ve taken a car over and I forgot just how seamless the whole operation is – we were on and off in about forty minutes.

Harley absolutely loved looking at the waves and, again, looking at things through new eyes, I can see how exciting it must have been for her and we just revelled in her excitement.

We’ve never stayed in someone else’s home and I was a bit sceptical as to whether it would feel like a holiday or not, but it was just perfect. With its own car parking space (an absolute must when travelling with a baby), two bedrooms, a proper kitchen to make her bottles and meals, it was just perfect. Any anxieties I had about whether Harley would sleep well vanished on the first night when she slept all the way through like an angel.

We also paid a visit to Tapnell Farm Park which is an absolute must for any family. The whole weekend was just perfect, made complete with Harley not waking until 7am on the Monday morning after we returned – the first time she’s ever slept in that late. Clearly we tired her out so the lesson I took from this was that we need more holibobs!

I forgot the one thing I was specifically told to pack…

Whenever I go out with Harley, I’m always surprised by how much stuff I have to take.

Just ‘nipping out’ for an hour requires a big baby bag to make sure she has everything for any eventuality, so you can imagine what it was like packing for a weekend away.

We ended up taking the biggest suitcase we have and Matt assigned me one job – to pack the Marks and Spencer’s stir fry meal that he had bought to cook us dinner on the first night.

It wasn’t until we were on the ferry, looking out at the waves, did I realise that while I did pack the stir fry food, I forgot the sauce that the meal deal comes with. You should have seen his face when I told him…

It is so sad to hear Tom Parker has a brain tumour

I was deeply, deeply saddened to hear the tragic news that The Wanted singer Tom Parker has been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour.

I can’t even begin to think how his family must feel. Tom is husband to wife Kelsey and daddy to daughter Aurelia and the couple have another baby on the way too.

The singer has stage four glioblastoma which can’t be operated on so the outcome for Tom is chemotherapy to prolong his life as long as possible as it can’t be cured. Tom and Kelsey posted the devastating news on his Instagram page.

I think I speak for us all when I send them the best wishes, love, hope and good thoughts as they navigate this impossible time.