In recent years, Fin and I have noticed how difficult it is to have an actual holiday. You know, the kind where you just kick back and relax. We’re always thinking about, well, stuff. Emails to answer, stories to plot, articles to write, people to worry about: all those things, all the time. I’m especially guilty, I check messages on my phone compulsively, as though I could find an email there that will end the world if I don’t answer it immediately. Ridiculous.
So with this habit in mind, I wondered how well I would get on during our short holiday on the coast, staying in a fabulous cottage from The Creative Retreat folks that not only had no net connection, but also no mobile reception or even a landline. Surprisingly well, it turned out.
The cottage was lovely, the village beautiful, the weather rough but forgiving and the peace very welcome. Putting myself on call constantly doesn’t normally feel as though it’s bothering me, but I have this feeling that, maybe if I didn’t, I might just be a little bit happier and get a hell of a lot more writing done.
I can’t wait for our next holiday.
Lynsey May 
Ace! I keep thinking I should do this, but any time I’m in a remote, brilliantly backwards place there are always internet cafes in the next town, an annoyingly convenient bus journey away, and I get shaky if I don’t use them at least once a day.
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Ha, I wondered how you’ve been finding it not having a reliable net connection while travelling. Now I know. Damn those buses for alleviating your shakes before they are cured.
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I think I’ve gone more than 24 hours a few times without checking emails (not by choice), but definitely not 48 hours. I should really try it. It sounds so relaxing.
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I’m of the age when on vacation (thirty years ago) you might not even have had a telephone at a holiday cottage and I used to write long letters to my schoolfriends when I was away on holiday. Despite that I still feel as though I have lost a limb if I don’t have access to the internet. I used to lie on the beach in Greece and plan in my head what wonderful improvements I would make to my life when I got home. Nowadays, any new plan sends me rushing off to the computer to “research the options”.
I am womanfully resisting getting a smart phone because then even my strolls round Inverleith Pond might end up with my nose on the screen and my feet in the water.
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I think you are very wise to hold off when it comes to smartphones. I was tempted by the sleek wee screen and now I have to put it in another room to avoid finding myself unconsciously checking one thing or the other. Keep what unconnected serenity you can!
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Maybe you could buy a cottage like that.
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Yes please. I wonder how many articles that would take?
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