Today is the first day of Muharram, it is a happy New Year in the Hijri calendar, the beginning of year 1441.
As today is a Saturday and a non-working day anyway, tomorrow will be a day off in compensation.
Then in a few days’ time, it will be Ashoora which will be another two days off which if they are next Sunday and Monday will mean a number of my friends heading out on a mini holiday taking in the preceding weekend.
Some of them have just got back from their summer holidays as well.
As you get older holidays become more important. When younger and with children you have to work within the school holidays and so the price of flights and accommodation are at their peak. If you are also paying a mortgage you are a bit limited to a two-week package break in Benidorm or Torremolinos.
As you get older, the kids have left school and the mortgage is paid off, it is your time. No more tourist traps in August. If you want to take a week off in April or November then you can. Destinations such as Peru, Chile, Vietnam or Sri Lanka become very affordable and attractive.
All that is holding you back now is the actual amount of leave time you get from work.
This is where you become creative. When there is a three-day Eid break in the middle of the week then you take two days’ leave and you suddenly have a nine-day holiday. Cyprus here I come.
The only issue with these breaks is that everyone else has the same idea and so the flights out on a Thursday night are full, and because of the law of supply and demand they are also expensive.
Not to worry it won’t be long now until you don’t need to worry about applying for leave anymore.
When you retire every day is a Saturday so when you fly off to an exotic destination you can choose to go on a Tuesday and miss the crowds.
The problem with retirement, if many of my friends are anything to go by, is that it is a time you take up the hobbies and pastimes that you did not have the time for during your employment years, and so you become so busy that you don’t have time for holidays.
More to the point as you are not ‘working for the man’ you don’t need time off to relax or recuperate. In fact, pottering around in the garden is far less stressful than trying to find a public holiday in Ha Long Bay.
It would seem that holidays are related to stress. The more stress the more you need holidays which is why when you finally move into your perfect little forever home in the Cotswolds then you are more likely to stay there.
Until the rain starts!
Jackie@JBeedie.com