A change is as good as a holiday

The other day I found myself saying “a change is as good as a holiday,” and then I wondered, is it really?

The Cambridge Dictionary describes change as

• to exchange one thing for another thing, especially of a similar type
• to make or become different
• to take something you have bought back to a shop and exchange it for something else

Which seems pretty clear – basically, making or being different.

And, according to the Cambridge Dictionary, a holiday is

• a time when someone does not go to work or school but is free to do what they want, such as travel or relax
• an official day when you do not have to go to work or school
• a day for celebration when many people are allowed to stay away from work or school
• a time when you are allowed not to make a regular payment such as a mortgage payment
• the time at the end of December and beginning of January each year that includes Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year
• a time when you are away from home, and can relax, visit new places, etc.

Which, reading between the lines, is about time.

Logically, the change required is making/doing/being something different with your time.

Holidays

My recent holidays have all been within five hours drive, in which case my days are spent pretty much the same, though in a different, perhaps more exotic location.

With more strolls along rivers and beaches, which for the most part, make up for all the meals eaten out.

Tumbling into bed exhausted, sleeping deeply, late the next day.

When we do it all over again.

Which as it turns out, is the same, but different to my normal life.

Change

Perhaps if you weren’t in charge of organising the change it might be like a holiday.

Something like an overseas holiday, where you didn’t have to do any cooking, cleaning or organising would seem like quite a change. At least until you got home and had to take care of the accumulated washing and so on.

Then again, one of the things I like to do on days I’m not working is catch up on my book reading. Though packing them to take away can and often does take room other people might devote to shoes and hairdryers.

But it’s always nice to sit in the sun or the shade, with a book. Drinking coffee, or wine. Munching on chips, chocolates, or slurping ice creams.

And I mentioned a while back, getting out of my usual routine changes my perspective about life, so perhaps that’s more of the change the expression concerns.

Though change is not always easy.

Corporate Change

Change as an employee is anything but a holiday. Unless it’s one where you’re blindfolded, thrown into a bus, and dropped off in the middle of nowhere with a pencil and a piece of chewing gum and somehow have to find your way home.

I recall, as an employee, exchanging rolled eyes with my colleagues and getting on with the job. Because those changes were imposed from above, some weird nonsense that rarely affected my day to day work.

And when we were dragged into “consultations” they rarely considered our actual jobs (satisfying our customers) or our actual status as humans (as opposed to robots).

But back to the holidays

I wonder if the expression should be a holiday is as good as a change.

Because one of the best things about going away on holidays is coming home again.

Sleeping in your own bed, with your own pillows. The ones that smell like the laundry detergent you use. That have moulded to your body shape over time.

The place where the water tastes like water should, and is delivered via the right shower head.

Where your favourite snacks are stocked in the right cupboards.

The house smells like your family and not some weird cleaning chemicals

Which is probably why we always come home early. It’s nice to go away, but we don’t usually want to live there.

Holidays not withstanding, there’s no place like home.