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My god the blogs have got a bit philosophical of light!

I will read back at these and wonder what was happening to me at this stage, but it’s all good.

I was shaving in Italy, on the family holiday on the campsite in Marina Di Venezia. I came straight back from the toilet block and had to put a note down to remember to write this blog when I got home, so I could remind myself of what it’s like.

It’s probably the 11^th time we’ve been to this place as a family and everybody loves it.

I wrote about it before, and several people went there based on the blog that I wrote.

There are 20,000 people on this campsite in the height of season, mostly in caravans but some in bungalows and some in tents.

It’s amazing.

The beach is amazing and the pools are unbelievable. The restaurants are fantastic and every year it gets better as they reinvest further and further.

They’re solar powered and they recycle their water and rubbish, it’s as clean as you can possibly imagine, that is why I’m shaving in the shower block.

The shower block has a pitch roof and is made of timber. It has windows in the roof so it’s always light when there is light outside. It’s always completely and entirely spotless.

There are an army of women (always women) in green uniforms who occupy every toilet block and clean it like it’s their kitchen surface.

Some of these are gnarled old stumps of humanity who must have been doing this for 60 years (that’s how long the old park has been there) but they take such an extraordinary pride in their work. The place is so fantastic and demonstrates the ethos of the whole site.

So, I find myself in front of a mirror looking at myself with a pair of shorts on and nothing else after I’ve had a shower in the toilet block, shaving, looking at the roof windows at the blue sky wondering if like ever gets any better than this.

Callum won’t use the toilet or shower in the van now, and neither will I.

The girls still like to do it because they have some sort of privacy thing going on, which is wrong, but for us we walk to the showers together. They’re amazing. They demonstrate the joy of that type of holiday.

It’s hard for anyone there to practice one-upmanship on each other when everyone is going to the same toilet block.

There is no real VIP going on there, everybody is the same. They have a pair of shorts on and a towel and they go about their business. They say hello to each other and enjoy the reduced pace and the wonderful feeling that the worst thing you have to do is choose what you’re going to eat for your next meal.

The space that is created inside your head from this is priceless and makes me wonder how I can replicate that more and more at home and work to free myself up from the constant noise that seems to smash out any of the good thoughts.

Shaving is one of the excises in mindfulness that the mindfulness guys would suggest you do and pay attention to because it’s something you do every single day which could turn into a treat but you see as a chore.

Mindfulness shaving in Marina next year is not a chore!

Blog post number: 1751