Slingshot

I’m in Heathrow on my way to the Seychelles via Zurich.  It’s a roundabout way of getting there, but it was much cheaper than the direct flights.

I’m going to experience long-haul economy class for the first time in a year.  It will no doubt be good for the soul.  I’m always breathless with admiration at people who stomach sardine-like conditions to go on a journey.  That doesn’t mean I want to be one of them.

I managed to miss the train to London this morning.  I had a very good reason for being late, but it wasn’t the kind of reason you can share with the check-in staff so I simply pleaded for mercy and they changed my ticket at no extra cost.  Usually Eurostar staff just look at you stonily and force you to buy a new ticket.  I must have looked particularly worthy of special consideration this morning.  If only I could figure out how to bottle that…

Something about holidays makes me a little too happy to spend money.  Without really thinking about it too hard, I went and bought the Panasonic camera I’ve been coveting these past 6 months in duty free.  It wasn’t a smart thing to buy on the grounds that I already have two digital cameras, one of which is quite compact and the other takes excellent pictures.  But the LUMIX range of Panasonics is better than both of my other cameras combined (I’ve seen the pictures it takes) so I wanted it.  If I had thought for a little, I would undoubtedly have talked myself out of it, although I can’t seem to feel unhappy about the purchase.

I also bought the maximum allowable amount of alcohol for import into the Seychelles, the better to ensure the boat has everything it needs for a satisfactory cruise.

We’ve heard that the seas are quite rough around the Seychelles at the moment.  People already on site over there are telling us that there are 4m swells and 25kts winds, which is not particularly pleasant when the main objective is to relax, spend time with friends and take advantage of secluded coves and beaches.  We’re not there for competition sailing.  I hope the weather works out well for us, it would be tragic to go so far and find ourselves struggling through difficult days of sailing when we really just want to kick back, relax and watch the sun go down in all the most beautiful places in the islands.

I’ve been looking forward to this trip for a long time, and it’s finally here.  Sitting in a busy and air-conditioned Terminal 2, it doesn’t feel like I’m about to be basking in sunshine, but I’m sure I’ll be more in touch with it once I arrive in Mahé.  Assuming I manage to stand after being folded into a seat the size of a dog kennel for several hours.

Every year, the holiday phenomenon catches me by surprise.  Having worked most of my life in the service industry, and in England, this continental month-long siesta that everyone takes in July/August is something of a mystery.

The way it works is, everyone positions themselves early in the year so that they have a maximum of time off during the month of August, and then suddently there’s this great big sucking sound as they all disappear to the south of France for the holidays.  The office building I work in is now completely empty, and the teams I generally work with are all somewhere else, which makes my work problematic at best and impossible most of the time.

Of course the rest of us who unwittingly ended up working during the holiday period (because someone needs to be there to answer the phone and explain where everyone’s gone) have to find some way of using our holiday allowance at some other point in the year.  But that can be difficult, because everyone else expects you to be present during the rest of the year, and short of taking a large number of long weekends or desperately trying to squeeze in a week here or there, it can get quite difficult to actually use up your holiday allowance if you missed the opportunity to burn through the bulk of it during the appropriate period.

The most amusing aspect from my point of view is how “urgent” items still need to be dealt with as quickly as they otherwise would have been, but the complete absence of anyone you can refer to for the relevant information or the appropriate expertise makes it impossible, so you spend most of the month composing elaborate excuses and apologies to far flung counterparties who work in countries where, during the month of August, people … um … work.

Far be it from me to stand in the way of hundreds of years of continental habit.  Personally I think the sooner I get my head around this holiday thing and join the rest of them in St. Tropez the better.  In addition, it’s actually technically illegal (or so I’m told) not to take two consecutive weeks off during the summer period.  What a grand idea!  But I’m not sure if I’m the one breaking the law if I don’t take the time off, or if it’s my company.

My one week off is coming up in a few days and I expect to come back tanned and happy from the Seychelles, even if I’m only taking a week off…