Confession (My Ungenerous Hols)
05 Sep 2008 by Annie Porthouse
Apparently holidaying families in the UK responded to the credit crunch by camping in Britain rather than flying abroad. Just to be different, we like to camp – abroad! For the past few years we’ve enjoyed driving and camping in Europe and this summer was no exception. The greenest thing would be to scrap the idea of a holiday altogether. The worst thing is to fly, we are told. We tell ourselves we’re not doing too badly as our car runs on LPG ( much easier to obtain in France than over here, by the way) the campsites are fairly cheap and we don’t overspend.
That said, here comes my confession. (Ever considered the priesthood?. It’s up to you whether you absolve me once you’ve heard my plea for forgiveness.) It’s about shopping. At home, for fifty long weeks of the year, I am one of the keenest ‘ethical shoppers’ I know. Not only that, I bang on about it to others: Why don’t you try getting your clothes in charity shops? Why don’t you shop at our local farm shop instead of Tesco? But on my hols I develop some kind of condition causing me to stuff all my principles into a non-degradable carrier bag and bury them deep in the sand (and there is a whole lot of sand in St Tropez).
For convenience (and bearing in mind we have two young children) we bought food mainly at service stations or supermarkets. I didn’t check labels or ask questions, not once. On the beach/es we bought many ice creams… nearly all courtesy of Nestle.We aren’t big holiday shoppers – other than food I only bought a few cheap presents for those back home. But still, the cuddly bulls I bought in Barcelona for my brother and sister say ‘made in China’ on the label. Fairly traded? Not a chance.
Is it because no one can see what I’m doing? Is it because I want some ‘time out’ from the effort of shopping with a conscience? I have no idea. But I have a nagging unease about it. Perhaps my only route to your forgiveness is to plan ahead for next year; suss out how to ‘stay on track’ to some extent. But how? Answers on a holiday postcard, or just leave a comment below!
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Godalming, GB , 01 Sep 2008
Maybe you needed a break from being ethical?
We shopped at Tesco on our holiday, but I’d have gone to Sainsbury’s or Waitrose if there had been one. There was a Co-op but it didn’t have such a good choice. I’m sure they had less Fairtrade options than our local supermarkets, but Oban is a Fairtrade town, while we’ve only just been told we now qualify, having been refused last year.
There was a selection of gifts and souvenirs made in Scotland, but an awful lot of stuff promoting Scotland was made in China, too, and if I didn’t buy any then I nearly did, but I may have succumbed without realising.
GB , 09 Sep 2008
annie. I am surprised at you!
but there again isn’t that what holidaying is about taking a break from the everyday of living life.
two other things to share the new word on the street
staycation – for those who holidayed at home
and the idea i read about recently for holidaying
a three year programme
yr 1 staycation
yr 2 flight holiday
yr 3 holiday by rail as far as you like/can afford.
Cheltenham, GB , 11 Sep 2008
This rings so true for me (for us as a family). We’re exactly the same. Perhaps it’s because trying to live generously does require work and effort that we lapse so easily on holiday. After all, we holiday to leave work behind – among other things. Holidays are, in part, about ‘an easy life’ (not all holidays, but lots.) The sad thing is to realise how ‘easy’ it is to go with the flow, to take the path of least resistance and to find yourself betraying your generous principles. You realise how ‘the machine’ is geared up to make that less generous life the one that is so much more convenient to choose.