What’s your best tip for budget travel?
First, the answer to this question depends on what is meant by ‘travel’. It would be easy to assume that we are speaking about going to distant lands for whatever reason, but let’s not jump to that conclusion, especially if our purpose is to discuss vacation travel.
Continue reading “Travelling Light”If you could relive one year of your life, which one would it be?
This is an impossible choice.
Every year has its good points and every year has its bad points. And reliving them wouldn’t change a thing.
Each day in each year is precious. They shape us, they change us, and they leave us alone. They give us experiences, whether good or bad. And yet, good or bad, they are precious.
Each day so far has made us what we are. And that’s precious. We are what we are because of each and every one of those days.
I wouldn’t want to relive any day, let alone any year. It might change my view of that day, or that year. And maybe then, I wouldn’t be the person I am. And maybe then, I wouldn’t want to relive that year.
No. It’s an impossible choice. Because every day is precious.
What’s something you do completely differently from how you were raised?
Where do you start with what’s different?
Travel. I take the car nearly everywhere. We couldn’t afford a car when I was growing up. So, we took the bus or walked. And we were fitter.
Food. My parents grew up when food rationing was still in force. So, they’d learned to use ‘alternatives’ like beef dripping (the fat that came from roasting meat) instead of butter. And my mother liked it with salt added. Now we know that’s a recipe for a heart attack. So, some of us try to eat healthier. Although it’s also interesting to watch other people’s eating habits. You’d swear they’re on a mission to see who can have the first heart attack!
And we used to cook from scratch, not check what’s in the freezer to heat in the microwave. Our freezer was the cold larder room at the side of the house. Milk, delivered every day, and butter were kept cold in there, too. Even so, a lot of food had to be bought fresh, or picked from the garden which is now a lawn.
And that meant much less food waste.
Entertainment. For the first 10 years of my life we didn’t have TV, or electricity, for that matter. When we moved into a new local authority house we got a TV, in black and white. Seeing the latest movies meant a trip to the cinema. Now we have home cinemas in glorious colour, with live pictures streamed from space.
Clothing. I grew up in the days of hand-me-downs. Today’s fast fashion put paid to that. Some of us still try to use clothes until they fall apart, and repair the favourites. But a lot of people have an annual (or more often) change of wardrobe and the old clothes just go in the bin.
Communication. If we wanted to communicate with anyone we either had to write a letter or go to the nearest phone box. Urgent messages would be sent by telegram. We used to watch Thunderbirds on TV and wish we had one of Jeff Tracy’s wall mounted video phones with the portrait of the person at the other end as a screen saver. I realised, a few years ago, when I was driving home one evening and my friend called me from Sri Lanka where he was working, that we now have them in our pockets. We had a long (hands free voice only) conversation and things that needed to be arranged were arranged in minutes instead of weeks.
Is that enough?
But then, times have changed. Do I long for those days? Not really. There are things I try to replicate, like cooking from fresh ingredients as much as possible, and recycling old clothes. Yet, each era has its own charm and advantages. When I was younger, life expectancy was shorter. Things change. And we have to change with them.
If the salary was the same, what job would you be doing right now and why?
I’ve always said that I’d rather have a lower paying job that I enjoy than a higher paying job for which I struggle to get out of bed.
The salary isn’t important. If you don’t like the job, or the people you’re working with, you’ll struggle to get up every morning and eventually the salary will not seem as important and you’ll lose it, anyway.
The reality is that most jobs pay a living wage by law. The real problem isn’t the salary; it’s what we do with the salary. When we overspend, we go looking for a high paying job that we don’t like. Far better to live within the means provided by a lower paying job that we enjoy.
One of the things I’ve learned since I’ve retired is that we waste stress on work. Once we leave, someone else takes over. And they could have taken over long ago if we had left sooner. We are not as irreplaceable as we’d like to think.
So, the salary isn’t the important thing. It’s more about enjoying the life you can afford than striving for the one you can’t.
Share a hobby you’ve picked up recently — what got you into it?
I’ve written about this in another post but here’s an update.
Almost three years ago my children were using a language learning app, but the free version of the app only allowed so many mistakes in a day, which meant they were running out of ‘lives’ regularly. So, I bought the family version for the year.
Knowing how kids are with such things, I decided that, rather than waste the money, I would do something that I’d always wanted, and it would be just for me, to treat myself. I would learn Italian.
Early on in my journey a friend suggested that since I already spoke English and Welsh, maybe I have a flair for languages, which intrigued me.
I finished the Italian course and moved on to Spanish, then French. And now, almost three years later, I’m on Brazilian Portuguese. And it’s become a hobby.
Whether I’ll ever use these languages remains to be seen. I’m keeping them fresh by reading and watching videos in those languages. But for me, it’s a hobby, and it’s just for me.
Greenacre 9 