Home Truth

Now there’s a thought. Maybe this year.

Six weeks of unpredictable weather and limited resources with five kids for an introvert like me is a daunting challenge. Strangely, with only six school days to go, I feel unrealistically optimistic.

“It’s going to be great. We’re going to have such fun….discovering the great outdoors, enjoying each others’ company, exploring our creativity, slowing down and relaxing….” Who says I’m a dreamer?

I’m feeling pretty smug about our holiday away, if truth be known, as our carbon footprint will be very low. Only an hour away and no driving for a week while we’re there. You’ve guessed it - thank God for Centerparcs (although it feels as if it’s costing as much as a villa in Florida). And energy saving was only part of the decision: sanity on arrival was a big factor (the shorter the journey, the less chance of family - and minibus - breakdown!). So I’m really looking forward to it, although the older kids do not feel we’re having a ‘real holiday‘. ‘Real holiday’ means abroad, preferably flying, apparently.

I should show them the article I read today in the New Statesman - “It is not right, and it is not a right, to fly all the time.” Nice line. Spot on. Flights are too cheap. The world’s energy resources are being wasted on shopping trips to New York and hen parties in Prague. Even my son’s football team is upgrading its competition tour next year from Southport to Spain (on one level, who can blame them?). And then there’s the contribution to climate change. There is no excuse, even for some commercial air travel. Surely, meeting face to face to conduct business now has a viable alternative in video conferencing and computer technology.

But people won’t choose to stop when they see others jetting off on several foreign holidays a year. Why should they miss out? The world is there to be seen and experienced.

For now.

Filed under: simpler lifestyle, travel on July 16th, 2007