Want your life back, then take a cellphone holiday
YOU KNOW how it is at this time of the year. After the Christmas jollies your booze cupboard is empty and your bank balance is pretty ragged. I went to discuss this with my friendly adviser at the bank the other day and found him smiling and tanned. It was his first day back at work, he said.
I asked him where he had been for his holidays and he said he had taken his family camping somewhere in the bundu. It was wonderful, he enthused. It was the first time they’d been camping and he’d been pretty nervous about it, but they settled in quickly and had an absolute ball.
“You know the best part of it all?” he said. “There was no internet connection there, no laptop, no cellphone, no telephone. For two weeks we were entirely out of contact.” He sighed wistfully, then his phone rang and he was jerked back into the electronic world.
I have friends who have a little place they go to “way up in the Cederberg somewhere. It’s not much, they tell me, just a cottage with no electricity and water from a rainwater tank, but it’s very peaceful and good to get away from the city’s noise and bustle.
Best of all, they say, is that there’s no internet or cellphone reception up there. If they need to phone they have to drive down to the village 40km away. They don’t. I was chatting to a friend recently and asked him what he had done over the festive season and he smiled and said: “I had a cellphone holiday. It was amazing!”
He had stayed at home and decided simply to switch off his phone and put it out of reach in a drawer for two weeks. He said it was the most peaceful holiday he’d ever had.
The first two days were anxious ones, he admitted, and he kept reaching for his phone like a nervous twitch. After that he relaxed and enjoyed himself in peace. No calls, no photographs, no tweets or twitters or Facebooks or whatever.
After his official holiday he was in two minds about chucking his phone in the bin and forgetting about it altogether.
This makes me think about holidays in general. Whenever you see a holiday resort, hotel or B&B advertised they take care to mention things like “wifi available in all rooms.”
I wonder whether this is such a great selling point. Do we really need to be thumbing our keypads all the time?
The people I’ve spoken to say their idea of a great holiday is now a period free of electronic contact.
I wonder how popular a hotel would be if it advertised: “Every room guaranteed free of wifi or internet connection.”
Last Laugh
Koos was known to be a good farmer, working hard in his fields every day.
One day a neighbour found him wheeling a barrow of manure along the road, wearing his best Sunday suit and tie.
“Hey, Koos,” shouted the neighbour, “what’s the idea of the smart suit?”
Koos smiled proudly. “You see,” he said, “I’m getting married this afternoon, so I decided to save time by putting on my suit early. Now all I have to do when it’s time to go to the church is change my vest and underpants and I’m ready.”