Well, today’s schedule was supposed to involve collecting S’s passport from the Passport Office, making sure all the suitable laundry was done and start packing to go on holiday on Tuesday morning.  As you’ve probably gathered, this is not happening, or why would I mention it?

Sadly, it looks like we will now not be going on holiday for the 10 days we had planned.  It would have been our first holiday in four years - the last was our honeymoon in Budapest - and I was genuinely looking forward to it.  So, I think, was S, but we’ve decided this is really not the best time.  Not only is the economic climate having an effect on the RF, there’s still physical work required on the place to give it a fighting chance of making it through , and that won’t happen without S being here.  Likewise, getting someone else to babysit the place while we’re away would cost a fortune if we wanted someone who could be trusted to be there for all the necessary hours, and that’s money we really need to spend on other things.  And while I may be sad about this, it’s definitely the right decision for us to have taken.

Of course, it begs the wider question of how we ever get to take a holiday, moving forward.  The same issue of getting cover will still apply unless we’re prepared to block a week out of the diary in advance and simply close the place down for the duration.  This more or less means committing to a week in August, however, since that’s the quietest time of the year: all the Edinburgh shows will have finished rehearsal and we could probably take a week at the beginning of the month, before the September productions start rehearsing.  So maybe that’s the answer.

In the meantime, it feels a bit rough to have made all this effort to get passports sorted for everyone, only to not need to use them.  I’m considering taking H on a day-trip to France, since the trip will pay for itself if I buy some cigarettes for S while I’m out there, and it gives me a chance to get back to a country I love and haven’t visited in close on 8 years.  I can also buy books and DVDs for H to help him learn the language, find a decent boulangerie and eat my last ever French gluten, etc.

Ho hum.  Having come back to this some time later, what really strikes me is that I am not desperately upset about missing out on a holiday, nor have I any desire to throw a fit of the sulks.  Which means this is clearly the right decision, however sad.  I shall instead make preparations for a lovely Valentine’s meal for S, H and I - I’m sickening for dim sum, so it may be time we did that again.  Holidaying at home may not be such a bad idea after all

Incidentally, I tried calling Ryanair to cancel our flights.  After all, even if we can’t use them and know we won’t get a refund, that doesn’t mean nobody else has a use for our seats.  And I’m one of those who prefers to be courteous and notify people if I’m unable to be where I’m expected for some reason.  Well, not according to Ryanair.  They told me they had a ‘no-cancellation’ policy and that there was no need for me to have contacted them.  So there’s still time for us to change our minds if we wish, or to change the names on the tickets if someone else wants to use them, so by all means get in touch if you fancy flying to Perpignan from Stansted on 17 Feb and returning on 28 Feb.  There’s doutbless a fee - isn’t there always? - but I have three tickets gathering electronic dust.