The exercise:
Write about: a vacation.
Last day of work for a while today. Last day of work in the office for a while longer.
I'm on vacation for the next two weeks, and following that I'll be working remotely for another two weeks. We're heading for Vancouver on Saturday, spending some time visiting and seeing the sights there, and then heading to Vancouver Island on Tuesday to visit my parents and some friends and more sightseeing.
I'll be working remotely from there for the last two weeks of July before we return home for the start of August. Feeling very grateful to be in a position that is allowing for such a long, summertime visit to the Island. Not to mention appreciating that Kat can work online from anywhere as well.
Spending most of Canada Day tomorrow packing and preparing for our departure.
2 comments:
That sounds like a rather excellent holiday plan! The ability to work remotely, and the fact that employers now accept that this is entirely possible, is definitely an improvement in working conditions (well, for those who get it. I guess factory workers and farmers are still a little stuck with being physically present for their jobs...). I hope the island is fun and that all the bits of Vancouver you remember are still there :) I find whenever I return to London that seeing the changes are fascinating but it's nice when you find a favourite spot that hasn't changed too.
Work is suddenly a bit up-in-the-air again with whether or not the job is ending the way I thought it was, but I'll update you when I get some concrete answers from anyone :) For the moment though I get to spend August at least in the UK again!
Vacation
From vacca, the Latin word for cow and ion, from the Greek ienai meaning to go, vacation literally means to go cow. Four centuries ago, when people lived closer to the land (that's a euphemism, in this dictionary's opinion, for 'were dirtier') 'to go cow' would have been understood as meaning to get up from the table and leave your dirty dishes for someone else to wash while you went and stood out in the fields chewing on whatever remained of breakfast and appreciated the sunrise. Like the cows you would have placidly enjoyed the world around you for what it was instead of striving to make it different, or at least to change parts of it that no-one would notice if you'd left them alone into things that aren't appreciably different to how they started off. Enjoying the scenery, taking the world at nature's pace, and thinking slowly and deeply, like a cow, about the chewable essence of things that can be put in your mouth is the heart of a vacation.
Over time the notion of a vacation has drifted away from its roots until today when it means, for many people, a stressful two weeks of finding places to stand in and be photographed so that hours can then be spent touching up those photographs for social media so that your return to the office, exhausted, tired and frustrated can be greeted with the same enthusiasm for your instagram account as used to be delivered for you offering to show the 170 photographs of your holiday around.
This dictionary is off to the fields with the cows, thank-you very much.
Greg - the changes in Vancouver hardly faze me. The ones in Comox, where I grew up, always baffle and disorient me though.
Huh, looks like I've got more comment catching up to do to see the next work update! I hope that whatever has been sorted out - and hopefully it has by now - is in your best interests.
Huge fan of the expression to go cow. Will be using it henceforth.
Also: huzzah for another one of your dictionary entries! Always enjoyed those so much :)
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