Half-listening to the radio this morning, I heard an interview with a lady who has been going to the same British holiday resort for the last 63 years. She was very happy with it too. She loves the place – I can’t remember which place it is – and sees no reason to change. A few years ago, I’d have probably been sneeringly critical; after all there’s a lot of the world to see, but now I’m far more inclined to respect her choice of holiday. If it feels good, do it.
Until I was a teenager, I only ever stayed in one place for a British holiday and that was West Bay in Dorset. Some friends of my mum owned a small caravan on the site and on several occasions, we stayed in it. And when I say we, I mean both paternal grandparents, my maternal grandmother and my mum. It had no cooking facilities, no toilet and, tragically, no television. The weather was usually crap – this was long before climate change – and we did literally nothing by way of holiday activities. Yet, I loved it. I was grateful to have the chance to go anywhere and, somewhat weirdly, I fell in love with the place. The family had no money. It was that or nothing. That was certainly good enough.
Into my twenties, I’d go on lads holidays to the Netherlands, France and Greece, specifically Corfu. Since 1985, I have been there a grand total of 25 times. But why always Corfu? Mainly because I felt at home there. It was familiar, I felt relaxed, I never felt the need to go anywhere else, a bit like the lady who has been going to the same place for 63 years. In truth, I thought the same pattern would last forever, that was until the children grew up.
I still envisaged going to the same place every year but I was persuaded by she who must be obeyed to try something a bit different. So, we went to Paxos, just south of Corfu, Portugal, in the actual resort Madeleine McCann disappeared from, and to Croatia, which I have to say was a massive step-up from Greece. We broke the habit and tried something new and it suited us. And now we are keen to visit places we haven’t visited before.
A long distance holiday – say America, Oz, Bali, the Maldives etc – is not on, particularly with the cold winds of a massive recession starting to blow in. But there are numerous places, not a million miles from our doorstep, that I’m ready to try. None of this makes me right and anyone else wrong. I didn’t decide one day to stop going to Corfu: it just kind of happened. If it, whatever it is, hadn’t happened, I’d be booking my usual two weeks under the Ionian sun.
Who knows – I might fall in love with another island, Spanish, Greek or whatever, and I might want to go a few times. I’d go back to Croatia in general and the island of Brac in a heartbeat but I’m open to new ideas. You don’t need to be. You do what the hell you like.
If you want to go to the same British seaside holiday for 63 years in a row, just do it, like I went to Corfu a mere 25 times. Tragic events in recent months have reminded me that time stands still for no one, that soon you may be too feeble and infirm to do anything or worse even dead. There is something you can do about it.
The Observer reports today that 3.6 million people aged between 50 and 64 are now what is called ‘economically inactive’, a trend accelerated by the effects of Covid. I was one of those, leaving the world of full time work some nine years before state pension age. Yes, I’ve lost – or didn’t earn – a lot of money in that time, but I have never regretted, for one second, the decision to leave the rat race. Today, I feel the aches and pains of advancing age and I know they won’t go away and will inevitably get worse. No amount of money could replace these years of freedom, where I have been able to do just what I want, when I want. I have been to three funerals in recent months, all for people who were younger than me, two almost a decade younger than me. Knowing what I now know, I’d advise anyone to think seriously about the rest of their lives rather than their bank balance, especially if there are hereditary health issues that could one day come to visit.
I’m never going to knock that lady for having 63 glorious holidays in the same place. In any event, it’s absolutely none of my business. Go your own way, that’s what I say. And let no one tell you otherwise.
