Monday, August 8, 2011
I’m not going on holiday this year, make no mistake
“We’ve gone on holiday by mistake,” is just one the many brilliant lines in cult classic Withnail & I. And although it might be a rather strange claim and statement of despair, it is, sadly, not an entirely unfamiliar situation for many young people.
With economic pressures such as low wages and high car insurance, we’re lucky if we arrive at any kind of holiday at all. Yes, Withnail and the authorial I might not have had heating, lighting, running water or any comforts of civilisation – and, yes, they had Withnail’s incorrigibly hot-breathed uncle to fight way, but at least they had a holiday, something increasing numbers of young people are finding it impossible to do.And what is it we can afford when we do? The answer is usually a damp cottage in rural Wales that we arrive to find already inhabited by hundreds of arachnid guests, or a cut-price holiday package in Egypt that leaves us with gastro-intestinal fireworks display and a finer knowledge of the alphabet of food poisoning, from E coli to Salmonella.
Truth be told, most of the time it’s just not worth it. That’s why this year, I’ve decided to have a holiday at home. London’s lovely and warm, so I’m going to take some time off and be a tourist in my own city. I’m going to tour the parks and explore the museums and have barbecues with friends. What’s more, I’ll save a couple of hundred pounds and reduce my carbon footprint in the process.
Photo © scalvert1978 via photobucket
Labels: car insurance, carbon footprint, holiday
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posted by Fuse @ 1:17 AM 
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