Flying in last month
I am finally home after nearly 3 weeks away. It was an exciting and stimulating interruption to my routine, and it has really raised my spirits significantly.
We are gradually learning that it is possible for us to have holidays and to travel, if we are very careful to keep things flexible and be disciplined about how much we try to pack into the time. Here’s why I think this holiday was our most enjoyable so far.
- We spent a little more on accommodation, recognizing that we would need to spend some days just resting there.
- Also choosing your accommodation in an appealing area helps – that way even short forays out for coffee or whatever will be more fun. Unfortunately both these make the holiday more costly.
- Making sure you take everything you need with you. This seems obvious, but its easy to get to your destination thinking you can just slip out and buy your lactose-free milk or gluten-free cereal there, but if you can’t manage for the first couple of days because you are too tired from travelling, then you will just feel worse.
- Of course the biggest adjustment you need to make is how much you can expect to do. How you manage this is quite a personal matter. This time, because I had 10 days, I let the first 4 slide by, just resting up after the trip, exploring fairly locally and then I made a list of what I was interested in. Immediately I could see there were more things than I could manage, so I picked three as absolute must-dos. That’s three in my remaining six days. That felt reasonable to me, although I still knew it wasn’t definite that I’d manage. Still I knew that by focussing on the things I really, really wanted to do, I could leave Sydney and feel like I’d had a good holiday.
Even a holiday in a place like Sydney needs to be at least 50% rest for me, but that still means 50% fun, and that is a lot more fun than I seem to manage in my home environment. The release from the responsibilities of running a house does seem to free up more energy and I’m sure the positive effects will be helpful for a while.
Looks as if we are flying at about the same height as the Centrepoint Tower!
