I have always thought that there was something wrong with me. Is it right that a person should get more pleasure from planning a holiday than going on it? Why have I got a clip- board containing the detailed plans of at least ten trips abroad that were never embarked on – mileage lists, fuel costings, hotel and campsite bookings (thank goodness for the “free cancellation” option), web searches on restaurants, places of interest. Google street is a godsend for someone like me. I have done so many virtual tours of St Remy in Provence that I feel there is little point in going there since I know it so well. Is it a sickness? And if so, is there a cure? But the more I read the more support I find for this admittedly minority point of view.
Here then, in my defence, are three quotations which give me comfort:-
“People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading” (Logan Pearsall Smith)
“Do not participate: happiness lies in the imagination not the act. Pleasure is found first in anticipation, later in memory” (Gustave Flaubert)
“How can one prefer the disasters of your frustrated desires to the sublime faculty of summoning the universe to appear before the mind’s eye” (Honoré de Balzac)
Travelling light? You can’t travel any lighter than I do.
my chautauqua 