You can’t beat sitting on a tartan rug in bucketing rain

Might be easier to get away to somewhere not quite so far-flung

There’s been much talk lately about the need for holidaying nearer home, with the implication that we may have to settle for this until we can get back to the real thing, ie abroad. But honestly, the idea that anyone lucky enough to have a holiday to look forward to in the nearish future might not appreciate home-grown delights baffles me.

Personally, the idea of going just about anywhere that’s not my own kitchen sounds almost unimaginably exotic nowadays. As my regular reader will no doubt remember, I’ll happily bang on about the joys of holidays on home soil – and that was before we’d been spending forever and a day in our homes.

I know there’s huge disappointment and financial uncertainty regarding cancelled holidays in the current climate, but anyone thinking of booking up in the future is presumably also thinking it might be easier to get away to somewhere not quite so far-flung.

People turning their noses up at holidays nearer home are missing the point that they’re not supposed to be comparable to exotic locations.

And that’s not just because of the weather – although I’ve quite possibly been scarred for life by unwisely questioning the wisdom of sitting on a tartan rug on a beach with the rain bucketing down as a small child and being told: “Put your hood up and have a boiled egg.”

The Student now tells similar tales of her memories of family holidays in Scotland and there’s one photo that gets dragged out regularly, showing The Toddler sitting on a rock, wearing an anorak with the hood up, surrounded by bedraggled cousins, steadfastly eating a picnic that’s been served to her on an upturned sand-covered frisbee.

I mean, I’m as keen on reclining in a hammock strung between palm trees on a beautiful white sandy beach under the blazing sun as the next person, but where’s the challenge there?

Let’s face it, the holiday anecdotes that get trotted out at every family gathering are the ones where everything that could go wrong did go wrong.

They’re the ones we remember most fondly.