AmsterdamFRIDAY 8 FEBRUARY
Like many others, I’ve been giving some thought lately to where my ‘proper’ holiday should be this year. I’ve been quite lucky in recent years; I’ve enjoyed every single holiday I’ve had (unlike the poor souls who contribute to the My Rubbish Holiday slot on The Nightshift). I’ve had several long weekends in Amsterdam, a city I would quite happily live in - and not entirely for the reasons you might suspect. I’ve also given Paris the once-over twice-over and (its citizens will be relieved to know) have approved of it whole-heartedly. Last Spring, it was the turn of Istanbul. I’d been there before, when my brother Barry was a teacher there in the early 70s. We celebrated Sunderland’s FA Cup victory while I was there then. This time round, I found it even more captivating (not actually a very good word but I’ve wasted enough time already trying to think of a better one and can’t) than I did all those years ago.
So going back to somewhere you know you like seems to be a reliable recipe for holiday success. Therein has lain my difficulty over these last few days. Naturally, I would be ‘content’ to return to Amsterdam, Paris, Istanbul or any of the little Greek islands I know I would feel comfortable on. But we live in vastly changed times now, don’t we? Virtually the whole world is accessible for ordinary people like us earning ordinary, ‘average’, wages. (Yes, believe it if you will - I earn no more than the average north-easterner, although I’m sure you will agree that I deserve a great deal more.) This means that, although the risk of disappointment is less if I return to a familiar haunt, the sense of adventure and the thrill of the unknown aren’t satisfied at all.
And there’s another factor preying on what’s left of my mind. This is my 60th year and I’m feeling decidedly ‘mortal’. If I returned to a Greek island to frighten the goats, would I be wasting a diminishing resource - time? If nature takes its course - and it always does - I have only a very limited number of foreign holidays left in which to see a world I love so much and have seen so very little of.
And in any case, I desperately do NOT want to become one of those people who goes to the same place year after year because ‘we like it here’. I’m sorry if that sounds patronising but I invariably want to say to such folk ‘Why not try somewhere else - you might like it even more?’ And this from a man who spent every holiday for ten years on canal narrowboats cruising around areas as exotic as Wolverhampton, Leeds and Birmingham. Maybe that’s where I learned my lesson.
What kind of holiday-maker are you? Where do you go? How do you make decisions like this? Or do you want to punch me in the face for not realising how lucky I am to have a choice in the first place?
Input.
BOB’S YER UNCLE, FANNY’S YER AUNT
The fourth question (of nine) is.....which movie won the 1989 Best Film Oscar? Keep the first letter of the answer safe with the three you already have and await developments on Monday.
CONTACT ME
Post comments on this blog or contact me in any one (or more) of these ways....
ian.robinson@bbc.co.uk
ianstuartrobinson@googlemail.com
text 07786 200954 (while the programme is on-air)
call (between about 0545 and 0630 Monday to Friday) 0191 232 6565
Ian Robinson, The Nightshift, BBC Radio Newcastle, Spital Tongues, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE99 1RN
NOTE
Please bear in mind that the views expressed in this blog are my own and NOT the views of the BBC.
Like many others, I’ve been giving some thought lately to where my ‘proper’ holiday should be this year. I’ve been quite lucky in recent years; I’ve enjoyed every single holiday I’ve had (unlike the poor souls who contribute to the My Rubbish Holiday slot on The Nightshift). I’ve had several long weekends in Amsterdam, a city I would quite happily live in - and not entirely for the reasons you might suspect. I’ve also given Paris the once-over twice-over and (its citizens will be relieved to know) have approved of it whole-heartedly. Last Spring, it was the turn of Istanbul. I’d been there before, when my brother Barry was a teacher there in the early 70s. We celebrated Sunderland’s FA Cup victory while I was there then. This time round, I found it even more captivating (not actually a very good word but I’ve wasted enough time already trying to think of a better one and can’t) than I did all those years ago.
So going back to somewhere you know you like seems to be a reliable recipe for holiday success. Therein has lain my difficulty over these last few days. Naturally, I would be ‘content’ to return to Amsterdam, Paris, Istanbul or any of the little Greek islands I know I would feel comfortable on. But we live in vastly changed times now, don’t we? Virtually the whole world is accessible for ordinary people like us earning ordinary, ‘average’, wages. (Yes, believe it if you will - I earn no more than the average north-easterner, although I’m sure you will agree that I deserve a great deal more.) This means that, although the risk of disappointment is less if I return to a familiar haunt, the sense of adventure and the thrill of the unknown aren’t satisfied at all.
And there’s another factor preying on what’s left of my mind. This is my 60th year and I’m feeling decidedly ‘mortal’. If I returned to a Greek island to frighten the goats, would I be wasting a diminishing resource - time? If nature takes its course - and it always does - I have only a very limited number of foreign holidays left in which to see a world I love so much and have seen so very little of.
And in any case, I desperately do NOT want to become one of those people who goes to the same place year after year because ‘we like it here’. I’m sorry if that sounds patronising but I invariably want to say to such folk ‘Why not try somewhere else - you might like it even more?’ And this from a man who spent every holiday for ten years on canal narrowboats cruising around areas as exotic as Wolverhampton, Leeds and Birmingham. Maybe that’s where I learned my lesson.
What kind of holiday-maker are you? Where do you go? How do you make decisions like this? Or do you want to punch me in the face for not realising how lucky I am to have a choice in the first place?
Input.
BOB’S YER UNCLE, FANNY’S YER AUNT
The fourth question (of nine) is.....which movie won the 1989 Best Film Oscar? Keep the first letter of the answer safe with the three you already have and await developments on Monday.
CONTACT ME
Post comments on this blog or contact me in any one (or more) of these ways....
ian.robinson@bbc.co.uk
ianstuartrobinson@googlemail.com
text 07786 200954 (while the programme is on-air)
call (between about 0545 and 0630 Monday to Friday) 0191 232 6565
Ian Robinson, The Nightshift, BBC Radio Newcastle, Spital Tongues, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE99 1RN
NOTE
Please bear in mind that the views expressed in this blog are my own and NOT the views of the BBC.
2 comments:
Ian,we have been going backwards and forwards to the same place for our mid-week breaks and holidays for almost 23 years. Our "shangri-la" is a caravan site in the Scottish Borders.My youngest daughter is aged 32 and has cerebral palsy.She loves the whole caravan thing, and if she is happy, then so is my wife and I.
Ok, its not a real holiday, the caring routine still goes on, but when you stand at the caravan door its the sheep in the fields you hear, not the dog barking in the next street.
Sid....sorry - I didn't mean to offend you. I'm afraid I sometimes shoot first and think about it afterwards. And remember, until recently, I too was a repeat holidaymaker!!! And that you cater for your daughter's needs so thoughtfully is WONDERFUL - although I'm sure you don't enjoy hearing compliments like that!
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