THE GENERATION TRAVEL GAME
One of the things that’s consistently brought a smile to my face in lockdown is Sophie Ellis Bextor’s ‘kitchen discos’. If you haven’t yet seen them, seek them out, they’re a joy to behold. Sophie has a disco ball and lights set up in her kitchen, dons her most psychedelic costumes and belts out some of her best known tunes while her small children dance around beside her. It’s clear from these videos that she loves being a mother and dotes on the little ones. She does, however, have older children too, and that must be difficult at the moment. Any family dealing with different age groups will know that at the best of times it’s hard to find something that they’ll all enjoy, never mind in the middle of a pandemic when the choices are even more limited. So she must look back with fondness on her last-minute February trip to Japan with her 15-year-old son Sonny and her mother Janet, which you can read about on page 28. They didn’t know it at the time, but it was the last chance for a while to get to spend quality time together. I love multi-generational trips. I remember years back, travelling to Dusseldorf with my nana to visit my aunt Patricia, who lives there. We were flying Aer Lingus and when we got to the desk the lady informed me the flight was overbooked and they’d have to put us into the first class seats (that will tell you how long ago this was!). We were delighted and thoroughly enjoyed the experience, inudulging in a full Irish breakfast and even snaffling some of the small bottles of champagne to have with my aunt when we arrived as my nana didn’t drink. We had a brilliant weekend, doing things that each of us found fun and opening our eyes to things we hadn’t tried before. I left on the Monday but my nana stayed on for a week. When she arrived back she told me that when she’d got to the airport in Dusseldorf, she’d asked the lady at the desk was it possible to get a first class seat as she’d had one on the way out. The lady kindly told her to sit off to one side and wait as the flight was overbooked but many hadn’t checked in yet. When enough people had, she gestured to her and gave her the front rown again. She even managed to snaffle some more champagne! She then tried this trick every chance she got. My nana was a great traveller, heading regularly to see another daughter in Italy, way back before the days of frequent flying. I like to think I’ll still be jetting off when I get into my 70s – and would enjoy it even more if I could do it with my nieces and nephews and possibly even their children. I might even try to blag a first class seat!
Enjoy the issue.