Going on holiday is expensive, we all know that. There’s the transport costs, the hotel costs, the ‘having enough in one’s pockets to enjoy one’s self’ costs, they all mount up. So most of us try to save up and save up until we leave that state of Holiday limbo we entered into about 4 days before leaving work on that particular afternoon and enter holiday Nirvana.
I am currently in holiday limbo. The clock is counting down. I currently have, by my estimate 10 hours left at what we might want to laughingly call ‘work’. All my projects have been finished, reports written, ‘clients’ mollified and told to get back to me sometime in mid-august. My desk is now clear of cake crumbs, chocolate wrappers, crisp packets, coffee stains and assorted bits of paper that might or might not have had something to do with my job. They are now all filed in the bin as ‘outgoing’. All my pens are lined up like soldiers, my stapler and hole punch are lined up next to the sellotape dispenser like Concords after their last flight, they have been mothballed for the duration.
As I have been in holiday limbo, my lunch breaks have naturally had to be extended in order to get down town to buy all those things I will really need* and have forgotten to get on the normal shopping days of Saturday and Sunday.
Now I know I said going on holiday is expensive, but there is always a hidden cost that we forget when we are adding up how much our holidays cost us. This hidden cost is what the wife will spend on essentials for the holiday. Such as at least two new outfits, two new swimming costumes (despite there being 3 or 4 perfectly good ones in the drawer – I know I looked), new shoes, new bag, new cosmetics, new hat, presents for all and sundry (we will be visiting the family in Ukraine), about 20 packs of tea (don’t ask me why), new tee shirts for her and the boys, new swimsuits for the boys, new sunglasses, about 6 different factors of suncream, new undies, (a failed attempt at a new camera), the list goes on, I can’t as I would have to crawl under my desk and slit my wrists.
By the way I had a haircut as my contribution to the holiday spending extravaganza, O and I bought some more shaving oil, but I would have had to buy that anyway, and come to think of it ditto the haircut!
I am not looking forward to the 2 hour stop over at Schipol Airport either – have you seen how many shops they have got there….
* This is what I really need for my holiday
Books - Three for the price of two at Waterstones, the rest of the books I’m taking have been bought over time at car boot sales for 20-50p each – I hope to take at least 10 books with me.
Afore mentioned shaving oil
Mosquito repellent
Ear phones for my MP3 player
Daktarin for those prickly heat moments
New Hat as I left my bestest one on a train in Portugal a few years ago and have been hatless ever since
The rest of the stuff I have at home, why buy new stuff when the odds are KLM will send it to the Dutch Antibes instead of Kiev!
Time for a hard earned cup of tea I think!
(PS. America that’s irony!)
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