Post Vacation Blues
So you’ve just returned to your island after a busy, bustling, beautiful vacation abroad. As you unpack your 500 suitcases of goodies (and your 8 weeks’ worth of dirty laundry even though you were only away for 10 days ) you reminisce over the good times that were had with family and friends. And the food…oh…the food! As you wipe away the tear (and that little trickle of drool) you sigh a little sigh.
Oh Cape Town my Cape Town
VS
Piña Colada-land aka Mauritius
I always find it very tough to fall back into a routine after a visit back home to “civilisation”. In fact it becomes more and more apparent that island living truly is…well… “island” living. It is a bubble and within this bubble we all co-exist on this little piece of rock we call home. We all have our little routines and day to day distractions (I call it the island haze) to keep us busy. But I always find I have 20/20 vision upon my return from the mainland anywhere. The veil is lifted and I’m face to face with my island – my rock, my home, my life.
Slowly but surely the humdrum slurps you up through its twisty cocktail straw and before you realise it you’re back to the day to day normality that is island life. School runs, lunch boxes, grocery lists, laundry, beach walks, swimming…repeat.
It’s certainly not a bad routine by any means and it’s one I know many of my friends back home would swap with me in a heartbeat, but the life of an expat is not always piña coladas, sea, surf and sun.
It’s such a big beautiful world out there with so much to offer and so much to experience. Island living can get small at times. It almost seems wrong to stay put in Lilliput and so before the haze starts to descend I do what any land-lover would do and start planning our next trip away.
