Some post-holiday thoughts

Cornwall. Preferred holiday destination of Prime Ministers, surfers, and a surprisingly large number of people from The Netherlands and Germany.

We’ve just returned from a brilliant two weeks in Cornwall, staying in Mullion on the Lizard peninsula. We didn’t take computers with us and we tried our hardest not to stress over our business, and it was bliss (thank you to our associates for holding the fort and our clients for their understanding). So here are a few thoughts about holidays:

How to make a quiet car unpleasantly noisy

Before a holiday

1. Plan – if you haven’t figured out how to get stuff done before you leave you’ll spend the whole time worrying about it and would be better-off not going on holiday.
2. Check your car properly – sounds obvious, but if you’re driving 400-miles each-way make sure you check all your levels and fluids, set the right tyre pressures for all that luggage and the canoe on the roof, and make sure you have AA / RAC /Green Flag cover. You’d be amazed by how many cars we saw broken-down at the side of the road.

Poldu Cove, The Lizard , Cornwall

On holiday

1. Don’t do work! You’re job on holiday is to relax enough to be creative and productive until next summer when you can do it again. Enjoy the opportunity to clear your mind and reset your perspective and priorities.
2. Don’t get sunburned. It hurts when you get home.
3. Hire a canoe – don’t take one with you. It makes your car less fun to drive, makes it difficult to park under cover and is noisy when on the move. Plus if there isn’t someone hiring out a canoe on that beach it’s probably because the beach is not suited to canoes.
4. You would have thought the beach from which Macaroni transmitted the first transatlantic radio message would have a mobile ‘phone signal, but it doesn’t 🙂

Boris

Back from holiday

1. Plan what you have to do. Check WiP reports, review deadlines and think before you act – there’s no point in turning all that relaxation into instant stress.
2. On the way home, buy milk, bread and a few basic ingredients to make a couple of meals.
3. Remember to collect your dog from the kennels.
4. Go to bed early and have a day off to recover from the 400-mile return trip
5. Brag about your holiday only to those people who ask what it was like.
6. Start planning your next holiday.

For various reasons, we haven’t had many ‘proper’ holidays for a while so I’m extra happy that our trip to Cornwall was so enjoyable. The Lizard is much less busy than the North Coast. It was sort of like going home to Ireland but with fewer sheep and more sunshine, and we’re going to do it again.

I hope everyone we work with has an equally enjoyable holiday and I look forward to a brilliantly creative and productive year ahead.