I spend summer holiday mornings:
walking to the local beach before breakfast taking the time to appreciate the colours and sounds that often get drowned out later in the day by the activities of everyone else,
making summery desserts for gatherings of families and friends,
returning to visit favourite places the moment they re-open after Christmas with said family and friends,
doing leisurely laps at favourite indoor pools (I’m not a beach swimmer)
jogging around Rushcutter’s rather than on a treadmill at a 24 hour gym
and chopping watermelons into bite sized triangles to be savoured throughout the rest of the day.
I spend summer holiday afternoons:
basking in the sun after a swim (again at an aquatic centre because the beach quickly gets too hot for me)
making grand plans and resolutions for my work wardrobe revolving around white jeans and vibrant pencil skirts, I might actually follow through, 2017. Or then again I could just keep wearing lots of black and white with the occasional statement necklace.
seeing the sights with visiting family, Barangaroo is on my parents’ radar for this Christmas break,
heading to Chatswood for ‘proper’ Chinese food in ‘proper’ surroundings for a ‘very reasonable’ price (inverted commas belong to my parents),
and going on crazy marathon jaunts to our local Westfield where my parents don’t actually buy anything. Instead, they seem happy to just have a look around, comment about the range and value of the goods sold in Sydney before grumbling a bit about how Perth comes off badly in comparison but that Perth is still a really lovely place to live, thank you very much.
And my summer holiday evenings?
I spend them pottering as I take the time to just be very present when doing things as mundane as collecting the laundry and admiring the work of my gardener as I do so. Then I often go to bed with something good on my Kindle with ABC News Radio on in the background as I drift of to sleep before doing it all over again the next day.
I. Love. Summer. Holidays.
I’m just not a beach past 7am kind of person. How can this be?