Morning:
8°c
I've had a dreadful year. Well, haven't we all? In the interests of avoiding a tedious paragraph in which I demonstrate how my life is so much worse than yours, let's just cut to the chase and say that because of said dreadful year, we decided to take a holiday. The conversation went something like this ... (Him): "We need a holiday." (Me): "I know, but can we afford it?" (Him): "No." (Me): "Never mind, let's book it. We could get run over by a bus tomorrow."
In common with many of our friends, we've been using this phrase a lot recently. As in: "I wasn't going to buy this coat/iPhone/£5 gourmet sandwich, but then I thought, 'I could get run over by a bus tomorrow'." It really has come to this: using the prospect of impending death as justification for any expenditure.
It being half term this week, I wonder how many other people have used the bus argument as a reason for going on holiday. Because the truth is that, however much we might all be strung out by our dwindling bank balances and precarious jobs, we don't really "need" a holiday: we "want" one. Accustomed to indulging our infinite wants, I fear we may be a long way into this recession before we reset our compasses to distinguish the difference between those and our needs. People "need" food and drink, not seven days in the Seychelles.
Or, in our case, Suffolk. I would like to say we left our woes behind us, but it wouldn't quite be true. Make no mistake: when you holiday in a credit crunch, you don't so much travel light as take your fiscal baggage with you.
Should we stay in the little cottage, or the big one with a power shower and a garden? Should we stop at a service station, or save a tenner and carry on driving? Once installed in the service station, should we complain about paying £8.75 for two cups of battery acid, or content ourselves with moaning about it for the rest of the journey?
Never mind, we reasoned, at least the soothing crash of the waves on Aldeburgh beach would make our worries lap away like shingle. "Let's buy some fresh fish from that little shack over there," I cooed, like a million other Londoners before me. But old Captain Birds Eye had seen us coming. "£12.50 for two bits of seabass!" I screeched, once we were safely out of earshot. "That's more than bloody Waitrose!" And so it went on.
There was one golden evening when I forgot about the cost of everything and actually enjoyed myself. And I can confidently assert that the secret to living in the moment instead of silently evaluating its cost is simple: you get drunk. For anyone contemplating a holiday between now and 2011, I would urge you to try it. "I really fancy the lobster, but it's £25," said my sober husband. "Have it," I slurred. "You could get run over by a bus tomorrow."
Reader views (2)
A real tonic to credit crunch gloom - perhaps we wouldn't actually be heading for the recession if there were more journalists prepared to write articles like this. Hurray for upbeat, positive cheer!
- Gill, Reading, UK, 27/10/2008 17:15
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What a lovely article Laura wrote - and oh so true! Ladies, pls read Merry S. Webb's "The smart Woman's Guide to Money" written before this recession (crash) and so informative for all of us.
- Cathy, Athens, Greece, 27/10/2008 16:38
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