Holidays Approach

So….for the first time in 12 years I’m taking a 2-week summer vacation for definite. All my clients have been advised in advance, and although nothing has been booked as yet, it looks like we’re going to take a sunny break as a family starting on the 2nd of August. This could very well be the last holiday we have as a foursome as my eldest could possibly be off to university next year. The cost is horrendous, but I took a small pension lump-sum on my birthday to cover some of that. One of the quieter Greek islands seems to be the destination of choice at the moment, so we’ll see.

In the meantime, we’ve had a French exchange student staying with us for the last week, and she’s like one of the family now. The effect of having someone different in our home has been transformational by forcing us all to do things as a family unit like the old days. As well as doing organised activities throughput the school days, we’ve gone on trips and long walks nearby - right up to sunset. Meal times have become social events, and I’ve educated her on some of the local vernacular. She’s going to refer to the amber nectar of Stella Artois as “wife-beater” for the rest of her life now - which warms me tremendously.

Taking 2 weeks off work will hit me financially obviously, but I envision a ridiculously busy run-up and post-holiday period where I’ll be packing in jobs to mitigate for the 2 week hiatus. Late June and early July have been relatively quiet so far, with a couple of last-minute job cancellations that later appear on Rightmove etc - having been shot by someone else. Let’s get the summer over and start to make in-roads to high end work over the autumn and winter.