In case you hadn’t noticed, and I know that you have, it’s summer. And the difference between this one and last year’s (and the year’s before, and the year’s before) it really is.
I am as guilty as anyone of speaking in cliches (at the end of the day), but you can make a case to say that if the weather was like this every year, we’d never go abroad!
Of course, many of us would still go abroad. We have our little bolt hole somewhere else in the world where it’s not really home but it’s a passing taste of paradise. Somewhere that we can shed our clothes and our inhibitions without people saying, ‘Keep them on!’
One reason we go to Greece when we can is that it’s cheaper in so many ways. Accommodation is often cheaper, going out at night is cheaper, the flights while dearer than they used to be are still competitive with rail fares at home!
And this appears to be an endless summer. Brian Wilson must be raking in the royalties from the Beach Boys’ summer music.
My choice in the hot weather would always be the seaside. Not any old seaside mind you but the traditional seaside welcome of Weymouth appeals every bit as much as the isolated beaches of North Cornwall, north of Bude. Or perhaps the little resorts by Dawlish and Teignmouth, little changed in the passing years.
Yes, we go to Greece for the weather, as much as anything. The weather, old friends and new, the lovely pools and beaches, the night time eateries and of course Mythos. But if it is sunny at home, I don’t think about all the money I could have saved by staying at home. I am genuinely pleased for my friends who are camping or caravanning in England. I am not one who smiles smugly in a Greek taverna whilst it’s pissing down at home.
And next week it all begins again.
The first day of the holiday, the act of getting to the airport, passing security and sitting down for that first pint is my favourite day of the year, bar none. The long year is over, the worries can go right to the dark recesses of my brain for 14 days and 14 nights.
I have a long list of books that I will whittle down into a short list by next week. My iPod has 12,000 songs to choose from, the laptop will be there so I can write every day, I’ll keep the Citalopram nearby just in case.
I’m leaving behind summer for summer and then coming back to a last bit of summer, I hope.
But even if it starts chucking it down from August, we’ve had a good run this year and it really has felt like summer.
