It is important to switch off. It is important to take time out from our daily routines. It is also important to detach ourselves from news and leave our “social media life” behind. Holidays should be an important part of our lives.
This year, it was lovely to travel back to Croatia, my wife’s native country, where we had an opportunity to spend 2.5 weeks. It was an important time for our family, as my eldest daughter completed her 18th birthday while we were away. A huge milestone. For the first time in a very long time, I decided not to take any of my work/ Council laptops with me. I wanted to find a bit of “me” time and to look after myself, for a change. Did I manage? Not entirely as access to news and media is so easy today and some of the stuff couldn’t be simply ignored.
Speaking a few foreign languages, when you travel, makes a massive difference. The coffee tastes the same, however an opportunity for a proper “intercultural experience” is never the same. The topic of Brexit has still come up a lot. It is incredible that 8 years after the EU Referendum, people still ask about its consequences and reasons for leaving the EU, in particular in relation to the economy. It was very hard to read and watch the news about the riots. Many of our friends asked what has been the main cause of these community tensions. It is difficult to give a simple answer; blaming someone else for my problems, looking for a scapegoat or “visible targets” e.g. migrants, general misinformation, recent financial hardship, impact of social media. Our ethnic, demographic mosaic is complex and fast changing. How easy it is to jump into false (?) conclusions.
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