Are Holidays The Restful Break They Are Meant To Be?

Holidays used to be a pleasure, something to look forward to and a restful break from work.  Thirty or forty years or ago more people only ever had two weeks holiday a year plus Bank Holidays and often the company they worked for closed for a set period of two weeks so there was no choice about when to go on holiday.  This tended to be before overseas holidays took off and everyone just went to the seaside in England – for two weeks if they could afford it or for a day trip if not.

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Gradually people were given more holiday days the longer they had been working at the same company and companies stopped closing down completely for two weeks but had flexible holidays dates that could be staggered among the employees.  People started going on more than one holiday a year as they could split their holiday allowance and air travel became more popular so people started to travel further afield for their well earned break.

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But nowadays I hear more and more people complaining about so many things that were not right about their holidays and it seems it is now more relaxing to get back to work and normality after the tense break rather than actually enjoying the holiday itself.  The main problems appear to be in the actual travelling to the holiday destination or back.  Flight delays are the most common problem but bad hotel rooms, terrible food and awful resorts come high on the list too, before you even get to the basic but less common problems like being ill, having something stolen etc.

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Whenever I ask someone lately if they had a good holiday I have to prepare for them to tell me all the bad things that happened to them with regards to their well-earned break.  I very rarely find that everything went smoothly, lovely flights that were on time, a great resort, comfortable room, delicious food and brilliant weather.  They never seem to say they had a lovely relaxing holiday but usually say how pleased they are to be back but it is a shame they have to go back to work as they feel they need a rest from all the stress of the holiday. 

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Whatever happened along the way over the years???  I am sure people enjoyed just the two weeks break so much more in the last half of the century compared to all the holiday time people have now.

Todays trivia (I can’t say snippet today as it’s a lot longer than that):

So you think you're too old, huh? Well, here are 20 reasons, why you're never too old to accomplish your dreams (and I am sure you can think of a lot more to add to this list).

At age 40, Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run, more than anyone had ever hit.
At age 41, Christopher Columbus landed in the New World.
At age 44, Marie Curie won the Nobel Prize in chemistry.
At age 49, Mario Puzo published, The Godfather.
At age 52, Ludwig Van Beethoven composed the Ninth Symphony.
At age 53, Margaret Thatcher was elected Prime Minister of Britain--the first woman to hold    that office.
At age 55, Alex Haley published Roots.
At age 57, Annie Peck climbed Mount Huascaran in the Andes. She was the first person to reach the top.
At age 59, Clara Barton founded the Red Cross.
At age 63, Francis Galton revealed to the world that no two people have the same fingerprints and revolutionized crime fighting in the process.
At age 64, John Pierpont Morgan formed U.S. Steel, the world's first billion dollar corporation.
At age 65, Laura Ingalls published Little House In the Big Woods, the first story in the popular "Little House on the Prairie," series.
At age 68, Clifford Batt swam the English Channel.
At age 69, Mother Teresa won the Nobel Peace Prize.
At age 78, Grandma Moses began taking painting seriously. Soon afterward, her career took off.
At age 79, Benjamin Franklin invented the bifocals.
At age 92, George Burns starred in the movie, Eighteen Again.
At age 94, Leopold Stokowski signed a six-year contract to conduct music.
At age 95, Mother Jones, Union Organizer, wrote her famed biography.
At age 100, Ichijirou Araya climbed Mount Fuji.

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And while we are on an age related topic here’s todays chuckle:

As we Silver Surfers know, sometimes we have trouble with our computers.

I had a problem yesterday, so I called Eric, the 11 year old next door, whose bedroom looks like Mission Control and asked him to come over.
Eric clicked a couple of buttons and solved the problem.
As he was walking away, I called after him, 'So, what was wrong?
He replied, 'It was an ID ten T error.'
I didn't want to appear stupid, but nonetheless inquired,
'An, ID ten T error? What's that? In case I need to fix it again.'
Eric grinned.... 'Haven't you ever heard of an ID ten T error before?
'No,' I replied.
'Write it down,' he said, 'and I think you'll figure it out.'
So I wrote down:

ID10T

I used to like Eric