Staycations
In the past, I never would’ve entertained the idea of a staycation, and am slightly ashamed to say that I would’ve harshly judged anyone who professed to enjoy them. In my mind, the easiest way to relax and leave the stresses of work behind is to be as geographically distance from the office as possible, regardless of the cost to either my wallet or the global greenhouse to get there. But as we all know, conventional vacations are not a reality this year (and not something I will take for granted in the future either), but I still want to invest some meaningful time into enjoying my life rather than being hunched over my desk 8 hours a day. And so, this week has turned into something of a spontaneous staycation.
The nice thing about holidaying in situ (and being very privileged that I can take time off work at short notice) is that you can pick a week when the weather is nice, rather than booking months in advance and crossing your fingers. The weather in Guernsey this week has been stunning, and I am duly sunburned - it was absolutely worth it though, my levels of vitamin D are at an all time high. The island seems to be fairing better than almost everywhere else in the world at handling the pandemic, and that has made me see it with fresh eyes, and given me a mountain of gratitude for the place I usually find so claustrophobic.
The other kinda nice thing about being a stereotypical video game playing, programming, never leaves the house kinda guy is that when I do leave the house and do all this outdoorsy stuff, it’s all pretty new to me. Because I haven’t been running, or cycling, or swimming, or climbing, or kayaking, or even sitting on the beach at every opportunity for years, these things still have a lot of their lustre, they are still shiny and new, and I can enjoy them afresh right on my very doorstep. Today I went running in a place I’d never been before, and swimming in a bay I’d never been in either, despite having lived here for over 80% of my life. I think that’s really cool - I’m becoming a staycation convert.