Vacation

I have been struggling, over the last few days, to sort out holidays, and travel arrangements, and a myriad of related topics. Not my favourite task, as it takes me a while (or, more correctly, an eternity) to decide what I want to do, and when, and for how long. Not to mention having a back-up plan in case it should rain. And it's not the sort of thing that you can take your time over: the clock is ticking, metaphorically. (Most of the clocks in my possession seem pretty silent nowadays, which will rather weaken the metaphor for future generations. Another unintended consequence of modern technology.)

There was once a time when you could stroll along to your high street travel agent, and explain to them, in a hand-waving sort of way, what type of holiday you were after; such as sitting on a beach, or by a lake, or on top of a mountain; with, if you were particularly into these things, some rough indication as to the country or continent you were most interested in. And they would smile sweetly at you and thumb through a few brochures and tell you that your perfect holiday was this or that, without giving you much of a say in the matter, unless you particularly objected to the hotel décor, or had some moral qualms regarding the form of government practised in the country in question. But now you are expected to do it all yourself, spending hours online searching websites that purport to address all your travel needs in one go, but which, you suspect, are actually there to make money for lots of people other than yourself, especially as they frantically encourage you to complete your booking this instant before the special offers disappear for ever. But, on the plus side, it is certainly interesting to able to see all the options available to you rather than be presented with whatever your travel agent happens to be keen on, even if the choice can be somewhat overwhelming. Though I notice that, on these websites, the advanced search dialogue box rarely gives you much choice over the hotel décor, let alone your preferred form of government.