Seaside Sparkles

On our holiday flight, Little Miss starting voicing her concerns about our joureny.  Saying out loud the questions to worry the nervous flier, what happens if we crash, how do planes crash, what if we’re over the sea?   Fortunately, I’m a confident traveller and her questions didn’t worry me.  I am of the opinion that if anything were to happen its unlikely that we would know and as I now would only fly with my family we would all be together which is of some comfort.  I answered Little Miss’ questions patiently and gave her lots of reassurance.  I told her I’d been on lots and lots of flights and never had a worry.  Her response was of course to ask even more questions, how many flights had I been on, where had I travelled to?  The question of the number of flights got me thinking and I started to tot up my flights, something which ended up being quite an interesting social history.  Little Miss is only eight yet has already been on eight flights, at her age I had not yet been on a plane and all my childhood flights total less than her score so far in her little life.  By my calculations I have done 64 flights but I’m sure I may have missed the odd journey.  I have gone as far west as the Caribbean and to the other side of the world, Australia twice, thanks to Mr S passion for cricket.

I find it unbelievable now but my first flight was as an unaccompanied minor aged about 9 with my brother to Scotland.  We were dropped off at Heathrow by my parents and collected at Edinburgh by my grandparents, my abiding memory of the flight is being forgotten by the BA chaperone on the plane.  I waited more than five years after this for my next flight, when after years of ferry and road trips around northern Europe my family finally discovered the sunny package holiday and we had three before adulthood.  Of all my flights the most popular destinations are Edinburgh and Paris.  Paris is much to do with my studies and Edinburgh because both Mr S and I had relatives in Scotland whom we liked to visit. My flights reflect different periods in my life, there are the city weekend breaks, hen dos and weddings, long haul flights to exotic destinations as a couple and now the family holidays.  Air travel is so much cheaper and accessible that flying is so much more routine.  I love to travel and am always planning new destinations, my dreams for the future are to visit America, I thought a trip to Disneyland/world in Florida or Orlando  (a bit more research needed) would be perfect to celebrate 10 years as a family in 2020 and my big dream trip is to fly into JFK and explore New York.  I love flying and the opportunities it allows to discover our world, despite Little Miss’ questions I will continue to enjoy every flight I take with a sense of wonder and excitement.

I don’t know if it was my desire to follow the Olympics but the big digital detox I try to achieve on my summer holidays wasn’t so effective on our recent Mallorcan holiday. During the day, I did leave my iPhone and Kindle in the room, sand, water and heat not being the best conditions so it was just in the evenings when I would log on thanks to the free Wi-Fi and use a few key apps and tools, Twitter #teamGB, bbc.com, photos apps and Spotify, not many tools but it meant that I was on online more than I have ever been on holiday.

On our holiday, I really noticed how digital our world is.  As a language teacher, I would encourage my students to visit the country and immerse themselves in the culture, watch tv, listen to the radio etc.. Yet this year we had BBC1 and 2 on our hotel television and listened to Chris Evans at breakfast.  Fortunately it was wall to wall Olympics coverage and therefore an added bonus, but in other years I’m not so sure I would have wanted the normal schedules, I go on holiday to escape daily life and who doesn’t like to watch a local soap opera and guess the storyline through exaggerated gestures and sniggers at the ropey costumes and set.  Another observation on holiday was the number of children entertained by their tablets in restaurants, some eating and playing, a real pet hate of mine.  For me, family mealtimes are very special times to talk and laugh together.  I’m the first to admit the children had tablets to keep them entertained on the flight but they used them rarely during the holiday.

I can’t help but feel that the proliferation of digital media means we are losing the opportunity to feel and live the culture of the country we are visiting.  We ate out each evening in the local town and it was a challenge to find authentic Spanish meals among the pizzas and pastas and yet when we found those restaurants the food, its freshness and taste were superb.  Every restaurant seemed to have the same children’s menu sausage and chips, burger and chips, pizza etc..  We asked for the children to share an adult’s meal and it was always readily agreed giving them a little taste of Spanish specialities.  They both loved tapas and Little Miss always is an amazing eater she will try and enjoy all food.  Eating out in restaurants meant that the children tried a few words of Spanish too which makes the MFL teacher in me very proud.

Our holiday showed that its becoming more difficult to do a digital detox without depriving yourself of some of the things you like to do.  Our digital world has evolved and in some ways this is brilliant, no longer do I need a Walkman and cassettes or CDs, camera, a pile of books as they’re all on my iPhone and Kindle. However its all about balance, so we need to feel comfortable putting our devices to the side and playing, talking and relaxing.  We will never remember the game we played on a tablet but will cherish the memory of the mass water fight, being clapped on to a slide and doing gymnastics in the pool.