Vacation?

So I'm back at my desk. I've been away for over a week and tell the truth, I didn't miss it, nor did it really miss me. Not that I think the place will fall down if I'm not here. Quite the contrary, I think things will tick along one way or other.

Ostensibly I was off on vacation. You know, vacations should be things where you go off and ruminate on a sandy beach somewhere, waves splish splashing, sun shining, a man in a sarong bringing your drink with the requisite umbrella. Nights filled with twinkling stars or salsa dancing; or salty tapas as you flit from bar to bar, singing songs in spanish. Even days whiled away pondering an artist's work or cooking fabulous dishes with Nigella. Fun stuff.

Vacations should definitely not be spent rushing around a mall trying to cram in every possible moment of retail therapy humanly possible just in case you don't have another opportunity. Nor should they be spent listening to people go on and on about how awful like is in ....(insert country here). When to take the time to travel to someone else's country it should be for the experience of something different, whatever that might be.

The time of the steamer trunk, the long leisurely boat sail across an ocean to get to your destination is certainly over. A more genteel way don't you think instead of the mad dash across a crowded airport to cram into an iron machine with a few hundred people wheezing and coughing or whatever. Sure you get there faster and it's much more accessible to more people but has today's travel really enhanced our lives?

I think I was out of practice with this vacation thing but now I know what I don't want to do. Oh I don't mind the occasional shop til you drop etc, I relish the opportunity sometimes, the trick is to also do those other things that you want to do, the things that interest you. Meanwhile, I'm frantically planning my next little flit, off to some Caribbean island to see if I can get in some of that sand and sarong clad man time. Try it yourself!