Monday 9 August 2021
Holidays
Holidays are great, yet for retired people there is something a little rum about going on holiday. Not totally rum of course, but slightly rum. It’s like a habit hanging over from commuting days when a holiday was one way to recharge the batteries. Yet retired folk are able to recharge their batteries any time.
It’s not that Mrs H and I regard holidays as rum, we’ve been on loads of them since we retired. Yet while tootling round the scenic parts of Derbyshire, while pootling up and down hills, strolling along quiet valleys and river banks, admiring wild flower meadows and distant views - sometimes we wonder why we go on holiday with all this on the doorstep.
No beaches and sea views in Derbyshire, so that could be part of the reason. No salt marshes, cliff walks or strolls along the promenade. There are many other non-geographic reasons too, such as no daily routines, no sense that we ought to be doing this or doing that, no looking out of the window to see if the lawn needs cutting.
Maybe that’s all there is to the holiday game - getting away from routines for a while. Which is probably why we never fly off to somewhere exotic. Anywhere congenial will do to get away from the daily routines, it doesn’t have to be a plane journey away.
Sounds cynical because it is, but perhaps one reason for more exotic holidays is being able to drop them into the conversation afterwards. Or fear of not having anything to drop into the conversation. Mrs H and I can’t do that. We strolled along the promenade, had a coffee then went back for a read – it doesn’t offer much in the way of social cachet. It’s what we’ll do again this year though. And we’ll enjoy it. Sod the lawn.
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9 comments:
That promenade will have a lot more cachet when nobody is able to fly any more. Boris claims to be levelling up, but I think he might mean levelling down...
Our passports expired ten years ago, so we can't even pop over to France for the day now!
Sometimes, such blessings are never realised...
If you search around you can find scientific literature supporting the idea that as you age your behaviour aligns more strongly with your genetic dispositions. Now that could be good or less good (you've reached old age after all) depending on on your genetics. Perhaps you will be a crusty old curmudgeon or a gentle soul at peace with themselves and the world.
Arguably you become less susceptible to the pressures of family, work, and society. You've been there and done it and got the tie-and-die t-shirt to prove it. So perhaps an exotic holiday seems no longer a dream of escape but a disruption to the even tenor of your life. Plus the over 70s face far higher travel insurance costs.
Much more contentment to be found in the pleasures of a gentle stroll followed by tea and biscuits.
I always loved travel and have been fortunate to have visited a lot of places many others have not, the bucket list is endless, but travel no longer appeals as in the past.
Air travel was easy and in some cases an adventure, today I have no desire to go anywhere near an airport, the whole business of air travel is a chore, the airports are awful transit hubs and the whole thing takes three times as long to get on a plane and they all fly at some goddamn awful hour of the day, nothing appeals anymore.
I've never been very attached to holidays as such, but then I'm just not a regular 9–5 person. And going very exotic places has never appealed. But for years I went to Italy for a month every year, a quiet village where I could not be on-call or online. Now I am —well, nominally— retired to a quiet English village there is no need to travel at all ('though I do sometimes miss seeing some old friends). But this past year or so has been strange, all the simple things that punctuate the days have gone; a life no longer paced by bell-ringing and croquet and hedgelaying… Pehaps the old order will return, for the moment one day is just like another.
Holiday? What’s that?
Sam - I'm sure you are right - he must mean levelling down as that is the only way to even pretend to deliver Net Zero.
Scrobs - I don't see up popping over the France again either. We'll probably renew the passports for visiting Scotland in the future.
DJ - we also get lots of contentment in the pleasures of a gentle stroll followed by tea and biscuits, although it tends to be coffee and cake at the moment. Rather a large piece of cake this morning.
Wiggia - I recently watched one or two videos of air travel from Oban to some Scottish islands. All very informal - how air travel ought to be in my view.
djc - yes this past year or so has been strange for us too. Pretty well back to normal now but there are a few activities we won't pick up again because we now think we have better things to do.
James - it's rather like going offline for a few days.
"We strolled along the promenade, had a coffee then went back for a read – it doesn’t offer much in the way of social cachet. It’s what we’ll do again this year though. And we’ll enjoy it. Sod the lawn."
A lot of the enjoyment of doing just that, is being in the company of someone, usually, a spouse. Unfortunately, as one ages, one spouse sometimes dies, as my wife did several years ago - and how I miss her - and so travel no longer means the same as it once did. I feel that, one needs to have someone to share the experience with. If you are on your own, you could be stood in front of the most magnificent scenery, but if there is no one to share the moment with, it's just a view.
Penseivat - I'm very sorry to hear that and to a limited degree I know what you mean. Yes you are right - even dropping into a cafe for a coffee is more enjoyable if you are able to say something like "this is pleasant place" and receive back a smile of agreement.
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