I think, as you get older, holidays change in fundamental ways, probably in a similar way to the way that your life changes.
Over the past few years our family has identified slightly more atypical holiday formats just to suit the dynamic of how my children are growing up and how relationships change.
The requirements of my 13 year old son are quite different to the requirements of my 19 year old daughter (and my 17 year old daughter) and so at times we head off in different directions. ‘The boys’ and ‘the girls’ doing their own things and going their own ways.
So, last week I was in Cornwall on the north Cornish coast near Padstow, living right beside a beach with Callum and I and the dog.
One of the things I’ve been writing about in the blog over the last 2 years is my conversations with Callum as he begins to grow up and I’ve had many comments from people about those so there have been many, many more conversations like that last week.
It’s interesting though, how the anatomy of a holiday has changed for us and for me.
There is the lead up to the holiday where there is some excitement (nothing like there was when you were younger because you’re too busy finishing off everything that has to be finished and trying to think about what you have to organise to go).
There is the general frantic rush as there was last Saturday as I tried to just ram things into bags and into a car, hoping that I hadn’t forgotten anything and getting to that ridiculous state of ‘if I’ve forgotten it I’ll buy it when I get there’.
Then there was the drive to Cornwall, carefully timed to avoid the traffic (we’ve been here before on 9 1/2 hour journeys, only to find we hit the last 30 miles and the single track roads in the dark, tired, with a distressed dog in the car and failing eyesight!
That said I was able to keep it pretty calm and then to arrive late on Saturday evening to properly ‘start the holiday’ the next day.
The first couple of days of the anatomy of my holiday begin with excitement and particularly here in a place that I know so well, with relaxation but also plans to do this, that and the other in the time that we have available.
The third day I crash and burn.
It’s almost always on the third day when you just let go and then you’re not fit for anything and nothing gets achieved as you just lie around and any sort of activity is completely limited.
Then comes the splurge that I enter in the inside of my head usually onto paper of all the madness that’s caught up there and all the ideas and thoughts and things I need to do and weeks I need to change and life plans I need to have and then you’re starting to think about getting ready for the journey home.
I don’t want this to sound like it's terrible. It’s really not terrible.
This is one of the most fantastic places, firstly because of how fantastic it is but secondly because of how much we’ve come to know it as a family over the past 15-20 years.
It’s clear though that the damage that I take throughout the year would need more than a week to offset but that’s ok.
The week allows me the chance to think about what is required because to work to 85 (my stated aim) or even to live to 85 will now require some considerable rethinking about what’s going to happen over the next 10 years.
Blog Post Number - 2822
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