What is the point of a summer without holidays or garden parties? (211/365)

[white_hart]

I had another day's leave today, so I slept until 8am (when my alarm woke me up from a dream where my boss was announcing a divisional watchalong of Twin Peaks: The Return, which is one of the more inexplicable things my subconscious has ever presented me with), went for a swim and then came home to spend the rest of the day sewing the elastic onto a set of mermaid-scale print underwear and listening to podcasts. It was a perfectly pleasant day, but it was also an awful lot like a great many other days over the last fifteen months or so, and right now I am finding the Groundhog Day-ishness of the pandemic is getting to me a bit. I would like to do something different, go somewhere different, and I don't think it's going to happen any time soon because we are both too risk-averse to break out of our lockdown pattern of existence, even if holiday accommodation wasn't so scarce this year. (And what would be the point of going on holiday just to stay indoors somewhere with fewer things to do than we have at home? We stopped going on cottage holidays for several years because that was all we were doing, and we haven't done any proper walking for nearly two years now so are horribly out of practice.)

It doesn't help that I can't have a meeting at the moment without someone asking "Are you getting a holiday?", or that other people keep posting photos of seasides and hills and lakes on Facebook and Instagram. Or that today has been wet and not particularly warm and feels like autumn is here already, which just adds to the feeling of another missed summer.

Comments

[mountainkiss]

Would you really like the garden parties, or is it a quote?

[white_hart]

I do quite enjoy the annual round of garden parties, but I was mostly riffing off "what is the point of a book without pictures or conversation?" and needed a second summer thing to fit in there.

[nineveh_uk]

It's all been feeling very out of time, treading water. I have been to other places, but even so the day to day is just the same.

[white_hart]

Yes, it's hard to really realise how much time has passed.

[lilysea]

Yes, apart from a small amount of outings that were medical appointments or to do with moving house, I've been at home non stop since March 2020...

[antisoppist]

I have not taken the kids off to sit or be asleep all day in a cottage because there is no point and the combination of ages and number of bedrooms required makes it prohibitively expensive just for a change of scene for me but I really could do with a change of scene.

I started laying out fabric to cut out a dress today but then I couldn't be bothered.

[white_hart]

After I posted yesterday I spent a lot of time scouring cottage websites and have ended up booking us a long weekend in a cottage near Bridlington, because three nights feels like a short enough time that we can just enjoy the novelty of being somewhere else (and near the sea) without feeling that we're wasting the time by not doing anything. But it's easier when you only need one bedroom.

[jinty]

We kind of have to go somewhere for the holidays (bookings and public health alerts permitting) because kids and Doing Something With The Summer. So long as we are mostly outside I’m not that worried re pandemic precautions. The place we’re going to some of the time is near Chester so we have plans to do to Jodrell Bank!

[white_hart]

Oh, enjoy Jodrell Bank!

[jinty]

I very much hope so! Also Chester Zoo, and the Galloway Hoard (in Edinburgh).

[girlyswot]

Am one of those posting pictures, sorry. But I am glad you have booked somewhere and I hope that you will enjoy having somewhere different to walk and swim for a few days.

[white_hart]

It's not that I don't like seeing the pictures, just that they remind me that other places exist. I'm glad I've managed to book somewhere even if it is only for a short time.