On Holidays
Why do we do it???
Buy bird feed
Set up automated holiday email notification
Pack toothbrush
Go to grans to collect kids
Change cat litters
Inflate car tires
Complete detailed instructions to brother regarding animals
Order electric car plug
Locate cat
Put ducks away
Print journalism course application pack
Entertain Benny so Est can clean
Clean up debris of fox attack on food caddy
Return to grans to collect eldest son’s swimming trunks
These are but some of the jobs that had to be completed yestoday before we could put foot to accelerator, or in my case, hand to hand accelerator, and be on the road.
By and large things went better than expected. I found a long-lost pot of Horlicks while cleaning the shelves, and having emptied out our swimming kit, I caught a glimpse of our gas and electricity meters for the first time in a year. A matter I celebrating by submitting our readings to our pinning and increasingly desperate supplier. Cheap thrills!
Minus the blooming air pump machine at the garage that eat two of my treasured pound coins without explanation, we managed to leave a whole 1 hr and 10 minutes before our expected departure time. A remarkable achievement for Team Hacking!
Yet all this didn’t mean the whole process wasn’t utterly exhausting.
Cruising down the A12 at 8pm yesterday, remembering with every 8 miles another item we’d left behind, my wife declared, “Going on holiday with four kids is hard work.” Minus all the animal jobs, this simple sentence sums up what I believe most parents with young children feel as they attempt to pull away from the monotony of life and enjoy a welcome break. Sometimes it feels like the only thing that breaks is one’s expectation of any proper rest at all! All this begs the question: why do we do it?
