School oh school. If the girls don’t want to go back to school in September, I definitely want to run away at a hundred miles an hour and hide under something large. There. I’ve said it. It feels better.

There are sacrifices we’ve made to travel. Mine sometimes feels like I’ve given up my life to make sure these children learn. Ha! Not least since I went to school and came out with the promise of having my own career. My own independence. I was sure at the time this didn’t include sitting over my children and checking answers. Or cajoling them to do the questions. Reminding them about exams, competition for jobs, having choices in life. That’s the teacher’s job. Teacher laughing at me right now.

Always at this point in August, the temperature gets turned up. Timetables are sent out – and negotiated. I received the new school timetables this morning. We are five hours behind the UK, so the girls’ live-stream classes have to be organised for as late in the day as possible. All good except for maths. Urghh. Lu is never going to get up at 5am for higher maths. Can she even cope with higher maths? Double urghh.

Sometimes, I like to imagine if the girls were younger. Most cruiser kids are – from about 5 to 12 years old. They tend to go home after that. We went home too – but we came back. We were supposed to sail home this summer. We stayed here instead. Now we have another year of online homeschool ahead. And at the end of it, Lu’s got her IGCSE exams.

Don’t get me wrong – I do love having kids this age. Teenagers are interesting creatures. Smart and witty. Coming to the edge of childhood and staring into the future. It is exciting to look at life through their lenses. And it’s good to remember. It’ll definitely pass the time while I’m hiding.