T minus 3 – We have ignition

The Big Picture approach to a holiday is that you say “let’s go to the UK, we’ll stay with my sister Ali for a few days and take it from there”. This approach has worked for me in the past but The G is an Organiser. Every now and then this means that I am called upon to undertake some administrative task. All administrative tasks tax my capabilities and frequently tax them to the limit. One sort of administrative task is Filling Out Forms. I don’t know about you but it seems to me that every form has been designed by a person who has a grudge against humanity.

But be that as may I was yesterday set the task to book dinner at the Seabreezes Restaurant (www.seabreezes-skye.co.uk) which is in Portree in Skye. Clearly this place is hopping: the website (which seems to provide no sort of on-line booking facility – but that may be a good sign) says that a booking in the summer months is strongly advised. Strong advice is good enough for The G. I may say that I executed this task with aplomb but only after 500 attempts to get through (it may not have been 500 attempts but it seemed like it). I finally got through at 05:10 and spoke to a young woman with a most engaging Scottish accent. At any event we are booked for 25 September which many will know is two days before the Imperial Birthday.

Last night I dined with my daughters. Number 2 daughter and youngest child (Izzy) is off on an adventure the day before we go. She is going for 2 months to South Africa with Antipodeans (http://www.antipodeans.com.au) on a Save the Leopards foray. Or something like that – she will be deep in the South African bush assisting with research into leopard behaviour. If the leopards are well-behaved perhaps some will rub off onto her. After that she is going to Europe for a month and will visit a range of countries with Contiki Tours (http://www.contiki.com). Her sister Sophie (number 1 daughter and number 3 child) has done these tours in various South and Central American countries. As a parent one would hope that these tours are culturally rewarding, filling their participants with a sense of awe and wonder at the achievements of other civilisations. Perhaps they are - but that sense of awe and wonder seems to be at the bottom of a shot glass most of the time and the achievements of other civilisations is measured by the music in a nightclub!! Of course I never drank or visited nightclubs when I was young. I studied my Mathematics and wrote letters home.

I return home tonight and no doubt there will be a huge list of things to be done. I do know that I am expected to vacuum on Friday. This is the kind of mindless activity that will keep me off the street for an hour or so.