The new television adverts starring Stephen Fry and the ginger kid from that Harry Potter kids wizardy film and maybe some other people that might be famous tries to tempt us to take our holidays in Britain with no passports or Visa’s required and the Queen’s Silver Jubilee and Olympics as big events to celebrate.
I love Britain, in fact I love England, Scotland and Wales, the three countries that make up our fair isle and have enjoyed the best it has to offer from Loch Ness followed by a stay in a B&B that advertised both hot and cold water, right through to Windermere and the Lake district, Northumberland, The Pennines and Yorkshire moors, the Derbyshire Dales and the various downs, through to Gloucestershire, Suffolk, Sussex, Cornwall and across the bridge to the many joys of Wales right down to Cardigan Bay. There are the wonderful cities of London, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, Cardiff and even Birmingham.
I love lots of things about our British Isles, in fact you could say I’m an Island Girl. But there are too many other things that I don’t like:-
The people are rude Travelling to these places is time consuming especially if using the car on our gridlocked roads Public transport is dirty, slow, inconvenient and expensive The attractions are expensive with many poorly maintained The weather (enough said) The London 2012 Olympics
The TV advert hints of the wonders of the Olympics and we might get a chance to glimpse a nobody carrying a torch and hints we should not abandon our country for foreign shores, but take a holiday at this joyous time of year in our glorious country – Yes, come on all you Brits, try and book a holiday during the the London 2012 Olympics when our transportation system around London has collapsed and the tube drivers are on strike because they did not get thousands of pounds bonus for doing their job during a busy period, the two hour, £300 taxi ride across town because you did not want to get soaked by the typical english summer downpour (and you also might have had suitcases). You could then head off for your evening out at one of the overcrowded pubs, clubs and restaurants if you can make a booking because they will probably be unable to cater for their countrymen because they can overcharge the visiting Olympic holidaymakers who had good sense to book in advance during this busy period.
I say, take your 20.12% and shove it where the sun don’t shine AKA England. I’m off for a proper holiday where the sun will be shining, and I will occasionally have to slow down my speech and speak increasingly louder and use hand signals so the locals know what type of food or drink I want.
I will fly first class and sleep horizontally on the plane and drink champagne and when i get to my destination i will enjoy being swept along at high speed along uncluttered roads and offered a cold flannel to cool me down my few steps from the air conditioned car to the air conditioned hotel foyer.
I will swim in the warm sea and outdoor pools and enjoy a taste of different cultures, the food, the customs, the architecture and fashion.
After being pampered by people that are scared of losing their jobs so act accordingly I will return back to this fair Isle and back to the drudgery of life and that is what a holiday is about. Doing or seeing something that you don’t normally do in your everyday life.
Don’t get me wrong – it’s not all about luxury and spending copious amounts of money (for all you work shy the reason I can afford this is because I work damn hard and pay lots of taxes so the government can give it to you so you can laze about and I like to save up and enjoy myself rather than overloading on debt). I am also going camping this year in England – it is something I have not done before so I suppose it fits into the category defined above as a holiday doing or experiencing something different. I will be in the lovely county of Suffolk, in fact I recently stayed for a weekend at the Crown and Castle hotel in Orford in January, run by the previous hotel inspector, Ruth Watson. It was cold and rainy but I thoroughly enjoyed myself. A weekend of cocktails, meals and a few good books.
I think what I am trying to say is that the great 20.12 saving is not going to convince many people to change their holiday ways because I suspect the discounts will not be true discounts and will be seen by us Brits as poor value for money and I for one will be glad to miss the 2012 Olympics especially as the disruption is so close to home. I imagine that many people convinced by the great 20.12 offers might need a good holiday abroad to get over it.
