Bastard words
Our gubmint wants us to travel as little as possible.
Stay at home, they cry. Only make essential journeys, they plead.
And then with a logic that is utterly baffling they tell us to take holidays.
They have introduced a scheme whereby we are encouraged to holiday in Ireland and then claim tax relief on the cost [excluding booze and presumably fags?]. Quite how we are to holiday while staying at home baffles my ageing grey cells and gives me a headache.
The worst part though is that they insist on using that bastard word “staycation”. To my ears that word is like a nail being dragged across a sheet of glass. It is an abomination and a torture of the language. Unfortunately people seem to think it’s a cute or clever word. It isn’t. It’s an amalgam of “stay” and “vacation” which in itself is an Americanism and should remain on the far side of the Atlantic where it belongs. We go on holidays here and not vacations.
The concept of a tax relief on a holiday sounds fine. It does have some hidden traps though. For a start, it can only be claimed if the place where you are staying is registered for the scheme. They say there’s a list of locations but I can’t find it. Then there is the small matter of the summer being over. Personally I don’t fancy a holiday in October or November in some gaff where the prices have been hiked through the roof to try and make up the shortfall in revenue. And wherever you go, you’ll doubtless be obliged to wear face nappies all the time, observe “social distancing” and be served by staff wearing plastic headgear that makes them look like amateur welders. Not my idea of a holiday.
They can keep their tax relief thanks.
And they can stuff “staycation” where the sun don’t shine.
The word "staycation" reared it's ugly head over here as well but it didn't live long. People en mass rose up as if the term caused some sort of horrible mental spasm, and rushed out to club and stomp it into the ground until it was unrecognizable…
…and it will probably end up in the damn dictionary nonetheless.
Too late! I notice though that a search for the word produces almost exclusively Irish references [even excluding the word "ireland"]. Sad.
Cliff Richard's "Summer Holiday" was not a hit to my 12-year-old ears in 1963. He wasn't the Beatles. However, the song's apparently carefree innocence makes a telling contrast to today's Covid-style holiday, whose only virtue would appear to be the name "holiday", all of the rest of it best summed up by the word ordeal. If you must wear a mask and observe "distancing" anywhere outside of the home, on holiday or not, then the best holiday camp is your parlour, not a Greek island where police reinforcements are called for to break up non-distancing-compliant parties, for instance. I am myself convinced that masks and distancing should be scrapped and the disease allowed to take its toll in its own time. Historically, such menaces burn themselves out. The Great Plague of 1665-1666 in England may have fizzled out on account of the carriers, rats, developing immunity. One way or another, though, it did self-extinguish. Unless the human race is ripe for dissolution, so will Covid. Thus, maybe Cliff Richard had a point, driving a red double-decker bus abroad and "making [his] dreams come true," without a care. In any event, the evil of "distancing" can only be justified by a greater malaise. And, I cannot think of one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxuapKdqIZw
The "the" before "police reinforcements" is a typo and shouldn't be there.
Fixed!
Most obliged.
Frankly the whole idea of going somewhere only to have to endure all that Covid-crap at my destination leaves me stone cold. My idea of a holiday is to enjoy a different [temporary] lifestyle. If I'm going to have to stare at face nappies and warning signs anywhere I go, I might as well stay at home.
Exactly.