"We're all going on a summer holiday
No more working for a week or two" - Bruce Welch and Brian Bennett.
"It's very nice to go trav'ling
To Paris, London and Rome
It's oh, so nice to go trav'ling
But it's so much nicer
Yes, it's so much nicer to come home." - Jimmy Van Heusen, Sammy Cahn.
By the time you read this we will be on our way home and I have to say that all the above comments fit in with my view of holidays. I have something of a love hate relationship with holidays.
You look forward to them with great anticipation - no more working for a week or two. But after a number of days away I start to look forward to returning home to all the familiar things, some of which stress you out when you are at home. But maybe a little stress isn't a bad thing.
No more working for a week or two - now being retired I don't actually work as such but while I'm away many of my voluntary things are just piling up like posters to design, diaries to write, books to get published etc etc and what about all that mail?
It's not as bad as it used to be now that so much comes via e-mail. So what we are left with are mainly cruise brochures which deserve a cursory view before being consigned to the bin. But there's still a few bits and pieces to sort out.
The days after returning from holiday absolutely fly by and at the end of catching up on everything, I often feel exhausted and need a holiday.
I mentioned earlier in the week that we now take our world with us when we go away. That is I answer e mails, check finances, pay bills and many other things that I would do at home. So no break is an actual total break. For me Harry Chapin summed up how I feel brilliantly in just four lines in the song WOLD which is about an ageing DJ.
"Sometimes I get this crazy feeling
That I'll just take off in my car
But you can travel on 10,000 miles
And still stay where you are."
To me those are some of the deepest lyrics ever. It doesn't matter how far you travel, what's inside you and what makes you what you are go with you.
It took me many years to understand that I didn't have to conform to what others did or said. My mates enjoyed drinking and going to discos. I disliked both and still do. Suddenly I realised it was ok not to like drinking and going to discos and there were thousands like me who preferred a quiet night in. But it took some time for me to realise that it was ok to be me. I didn't have to be in the same boat as the others and could plough my own furrow and gravitate towards the areas in life that were important to me and not the areas I felt I should be in through peer pressure - or of you like the seaside pier pressure.
I thought by not liking drinking and discos I was being dull and boring but then I realised there were others who preferred reading and writing and playing sport.
I'm always saying to the grandchildren - always follow your dreams, follow what you are interested in and be leaders and not followers. And they have brilliantly to date done just that. For Elliot it has been playing football and cricket and maths and for Poppy it's drama, singing and writing.
And without thinking about it, I began to realise that their interests encapsulate everything that I enjoy and believe in. I don't pretend that their interests are down to me, but I am pleased that they are areas I can help them in and with, whilst getting considerable enjoyment myself. Of course at just 11 weeks, Lyla is too young to do anything other than smile a lot. I bet she grows up loving sport though.
I did mention singing but that's not one I can help with as I have a voice like a foghorn.
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The final day of our holiday yesterday was spent mainly in Funchal. I tried to find something amusing to sign off the holiday with but it was a tough task so I'll just have to mention the extremely friendly waiter who served us at a roadside restaurant and told us all the best places to go on the island before we told him it was our last day. Didn't stop him marking places on a map though. Mainly they consisted of distilleries. Perhaps he just type cast us because we were British.
We had a good walk round various gardens and the sun stayed out for most of the day.
In the next few days I will start sharing photos of our holiday as I know some people like to see images of where we have been.
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You will know that I don't have much time for so called celebrity chefs. Most like Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay annoy me immensely with their behaviour and share arrogance.
One exception for me has always been the Hairy Bikers. They always came over as regular guys who made good wholesome food. When they produced the food it was the food you celebrated and not them. When Mary Berry unleashed a new cake we are applauding Mary Berry and not the cake. With the bikers it was the other way round.
So I was very sad to hear that Dave Myers has died. I will miss their programmes, their humour and their humanity and I know I'm not alone.
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I thought it would be good to try to reconstitute details of the year in which I was born - 1952 - to build up a picture of what was going on then with particular emphasis on the things I'm interested in. Of course I will share it with you but first I have some comments to make on a piece of family history written by one of my bloggettes. I have been very lax in giving this consideration but you know who you are and I promise I will do it in the near future.