Holiday Shorts

I have found it difficult to get into holiday mode but this is not too surprising after a welcoming hectic few weeks at work and a particularly pressing deadline to complete a big project right up to Friday evening. It has been a momentous last couple of days what with my milestone, yes, not millstone, 50th on wednesday and a family gathering at eldest daughters university graduation on friday. I have therefore been a bit pre-occupied and in such circumstances it has been up to certain triggers to evoke that feeling of breaking away from the normal and everyday routines. The first was spending some of my birthday cash on a bright blue pair of old mans shorts, a loud shirt and some casual chino's from a Gap Outlet. The old man's shorts were from the same shop and not as it sounds grammatically from a random senior citizen looking to supplement a diminishing pension fund. The next was a new pair of sandals as my vintage pair from a Greek holiday a decade ago look a bit sorry. The mythical wings flew off on a day trip to see the island of Ithaca and the leather has a curious colour from a cocktail of sun cream, olive oil dressing and tomato ketchup. The replacement pair are those sporty looking ones, all mesh and velcro and in no way of biblical authenticity. A third catalyst is the choice of reading matter. This year I have picked up a weighty book which would have taken up the whole baggage allocation on a short haul flight but then again Neil Young has done a lot in his life to date. I may just walk about with it in public to impress. So, with all of my paraphanelia in place I have come to realise that, after all, being on holiday is actually a frame of mind and who you are with.