There’s nothing to lift your spirit like an upcoming holiday in some far flung paradise. Your co-workers are jealously watching as you float on a pinky blue cloud of expectations and dreams of Pina colada drenched days. Except…

Before that there are the preparations. The pre-holiday stress amounts to that of a major family gathering. Imagine your mother, grandmother, your female cousins (who don’t like you all that much), all your female in-laws AND your partner’s ex –  all descending on your house at once. What do you do to prepare for them?

You clean! You dust! You polish! You change the bedding! You empty the bins! You briefly revive all your indoor plants! And then they arrive and undo all your work within a few minutes. You think, ‘why do I bother, they will complain anyway’.

That’s exactly what I do before going on holiday. However long it may be. I even make a list of things that need to be done (rather than randomly stumbling upon a ‘needy’ chore as I would normally).

The last pre-holiday day is a manic scramble to get all those dishes out of the dishwasher into the cupboards (why?), all washing clean, dry and tidied away in the wardrobes (!), all surfaces polished as if they’ve never been used, the fridge almost sterile, even the recycling bin empty. Let alone organising the dog and the chickens (i.e. writing a detailed cv, care instructions, likes and dislikes, and a list of favourite food for each of the animals).

I have been known to take my husband out for dinner the evening before travelling just so that ‘I don’t make the kitchen dirty again’.

As I am writing this, I realise that I am in fact creating a list of chores. So much to do and so little time – my brother will need to know that the brown hen will throw herself under his feet and trip him up if he doesn’t hurry up with the dried mealworms!

Sorry for the abrupt end but must dash!

😎☀️✈️