Thursday 28 July 2011

The Great British Holiday

You open your eyes early in the morning and can feel the heat from the lovely sunshine bursting through your bedroom window, you look over to your little bag of clothes and flip flops that are neatly packed by your door awaiting the tetris style packing to get it in the boot of your parents car.
The anticipation and excitement of this day has kept you smiling for days, its only the long drive now thats in between you and the lovely view of the sea, the sound of the waves, the bells and ringing from the amusement arcades and all those ice cream and sweet stalls.



We all remember those days, the days of the small caravan, chalets or family homes by the beach, the crazy golf and horse riding, the 2p fruit machines that were easily the most addictive machine in the world, the amazing smell of fresh chips and the sweet smell from the stalls that sell those huge chunks of honeycomb and stick of rock. Remember the walks along the beach collecting shells and funny shaped pebbles, filling your pockets all the way. Beaches packed no matter what the weather, windbreaks everywhere and the amazing noise of families from all over just having a nice time.


What happened.............. we went to Southsea the other day and had a lovely time but it was like a ghost town, the weather was easily in its mid 80s but the place was empty, Hastings, Brighton and Bournemouth are all the same too, piers deserted or burned down, even ice cream stalls shut down. These holidays have been in our lives for generations before us but it's sad to see that its over,  and it is over i think, as none of these piers are going to get the funds to re-open and these towns have become dated and in some parts derelict.

When its a really hot day we all bunk off work and have day at the beach but a proper holiday, not anymore, OK its probably cheaper to go abroad for a week than it is to stay in Bournemouth or Brighton but there are options, there has to be. I'm not trying to start a crusade here or trying to convince anybody to change their lives but I thought it would give us all a chance to remember how excited we all were when these holidays were part of our lives.

We all pushed the British seaside away because jumping on a plane became easier and sometimes cheaper, I'm the same too, I love my family holidays in Marmaris, but seeing how happy my 5 year old daughter Daisy was by just throwing stones into the sea and getting an ice cream really reminded me of how easy it is to have a nice holiday without all the check-in and security checks and passport checks and some more checks then the 2 hour coach ride in the dark so you can't see your hotel properly until the morning. I love being abroad but only because of the heat really, I still eat burgers and chips and full English breakfasts. I still try and find the supermarket on the first morning to buy tea bags and milk. I'm always amazed when I see Heinz baked beans and PG Tips in the shop. We all get frustrated when the locals can't understand us, we all get impressed when the local bars are showing Eastenders or X-Factor, we always cast aside the local foods on the dinner menu for good old trusted spag bol, steak and chips or pizza. The weather is all we crave, the beaches are nice in some countries depending on where you are but it's the heat that makes the difference. 
But thats not what we wanted when we were young and our kids don't want it either and I think once you're there you'll enjoy it too, we cover them in the shade and sun block when its too hot anyway.



Haven holiday's, Butlins, Pontins to name a few last hopes of keeping the seaside holidays alive. They are not as expensive as I thought and I'm looking into it now for my lot. 

Why not take them on one of these great British holidays and do all the simple things we loved as kids because our kids will love it too.

Written by Nathan

3 comments:

  1. Gorgeous atmospheric post... and you are right, we will lose a bit of of ourselves if we don't keep taking our kids to all those places our own childhoods are made of...

    ReplyDelete
  2. thank you, your right, we need to keep the tradition going. xx

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lovely words, brilliant sentiment! So so true mate, holidays in this country and the experiences and memories they bring are a sacred thing.
    We definitely need more celebration of the things that make the UK a unique and interesting place to live. Far too many package holiday destinations bring a watered down version of the UK with hot sun. So its neither truly British or different enough to be celebrated as a foreign experience. Yes we should experience other countries but only if we truly embrace their culture, their food, their way of living. Bringing the flat pack UK version is ultimately an empty experience. Equally we should love everything that is quintessentially British and visit our stunning and quirky coastal resorts and keep them alive!

    I'm with you fella!

    Pete

    ReplyDelete