Why Wait for Holidays?

Because you're a sheep?

This year, as my wife and I celebrate over 47 years of married bliss, it will be business as usual. We shall be holidaying at home. "Not again", say our bemused friends as they go off to the four corners of the globe. Braving upset stomachs, travel sickness, poor hotel accommodation, nothing dampens their enthusiasm. "It was wonderful", they will enthuse on their return, but then it always is. If they detect some doubt in our minds, out will come the evidence, the innumerable holiday snaps. Showing us their photos is only half the story; as a commentary is always included as well. I have never understood the logic of being told, "This is us" when you are looking at a group of people you have known all your life. In retaliation I am threatening to get some photos of my wife and myself emerging from our local supermarket.

I just wonder, wouldn't these travel-weary folk be so much better off if they gave holidays a miss? After all, what is a holiday? It is something you plan and look forward to for months. But then you do the same for Christmas, and it turns out to be such a joyous occasion that the Samaritans can hardly cope with the consequences. Wouldn't it all be so much more fun if, instead of waiting two or three months for your holiday to arrive, you started living today? Why not get in touch with your travel agent now and say "I'm sorry, we want to cancel". Do you want to be one of the masses when you can be an individual? You only have to look at your T.V. to see airport lounges bursting at the seams as people set off on yet another new adventure, and not one of them with a smile on their faces.

Isn't going away on holiday more to do with status than enjoyment? Go off to Bermuda for a fortnight, come back with a tan, and you will be the talk of the town. If, on the other hand you went to Skegness, don't be surprised if you hardly get a mention. By pursuing a policy of holidaying at home you stand out from the crowd; you start doing what you want to do and not what is expected of you. Why not resolve, from today, to start living your lives for 52 weeks of the year and not just for part of it. Then you can say to your friends "No, we don't go away for holidays, we are on holiday".

Les Lawrence