Do I Need to go on Holiday Every Time I Need Inspiration? I Certainly Hope Not

When I head away on holiday I always do the same thing whether I am going abroad or just staying in sunny Scotland. I will pack a suitcase or sports bag with clothes and the other essentials then I will get a rucksack or shoulder bag and fill that this with the things that I see as being vital for a holiday. In it I will put books, iPod, chargers etc but there is always something that I will double check that I have in - pens and a notebook. Maybe I am being naive to think that I am in the minority by doing this but I don't believe that many of you will take writing stuff away with you on holiday. Well the proof is in the pudding for this holiday that I am currently on in Rome because the first half of this post is being written with the old pen and paper on my bed in my hotel room after a long day of sightseeing and subsequent inspirations. Maybe this is the kind of thing that makes me slightly different because I believe that we all have something that sets us apart from each other. It might seem a bit weird or, for the want of a better word, 'geeky' but I have the firm belief that if you have a passion for something then there should be no set time or place for it - my passion then is clearly writing.

I'm fascinated to know just what you are thinking right now after that introduction. Not because I am particularly bothered about what people think of me when it comes to this kind of thing but what is your current line of thought? Do you believe that the term 'holiday' means to leave everything that you would do at home there and undertake completely new things for a week or two? Or do you see sense in the way that I do things? I know for a fact that I would be quite lost without this pen and paper that I am using just now. For whatever reason and through no particular choice of my own, I find myself thinking about things to write all the time - even when I don't have paper in front of me. For example I have been sitting on the top of an open-top tour bus for the last couple of days taking in the magnificent sights of Rome and I can't help but be inspired by some of the things that I see. The way that we have gone about every day of this holiday so far is pretty much the way that the people of Rome go about theirs: we go out fairly early in the morning until mid-afternoon and then come back to the hotel to have a 'siesta' after which we go out for dinner and stay out until fairly late. It is that 'siesta' time though when I find myself not being able to sleep or having a few minutes to kill that I am able to write stuff down. I genuinely would love to know if other people do this on holiday or if I am just being different.

What I plan to do for the remainder of the holiday, when I have spare 10 minutes, is to keep writing down little musings and see what I have when I get home. Once I have read through all of the little paragraphs and verses that I have scribbled down in this notebook, I will add the second part of this post to see if I have actually achieved anything. Maybe then I will be able to see if I have wasted time on holiday but right now, sitting on my bed on a particularly humid evening in Rome, I don't feel like I am wasting time at all. I have enjoyed my first few days here immensely and feel that I have missed out on nothing as a result of my persistent urge to write things down - we'll see what happens though.

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So that's me been home for two days now and after having typed up my journal entries on the computer and having read all of the other little things that I have written down in my notebook, I am pleased to report that I feel all warm inside. This is of great advantage to me because it's pretty cold back here - in fact it is almost half the temperature that we were getting in Rome which is a pretty huge difference. Anyway back to this so called report that I am supposed to be writing about my holiday notebook. I wrote a few little poems that aren't very good in terms of language but the ideas in them are pretty good, I have made little lists to myself about things that I thought about doing when I got home and I have even put a list of Italian words for me to translate on the computer as well. When I think about it, having a notebook with you all the time (and not just on holiday) is something that maybe I should try more often. It annoys me when people say that they have 'brains like sieves' because everyone sort of struggles with remembering things most of the time. To have a place where you can just quickly jot something down might be the answer for these people. If they believe their brains to be so bad then they should do something to help themselves instead of using the excuse of bad memory.

It might be something important that I will use for the rest of my life because I am sure that there is going to be so much for me to remember both in university and then, if it turns out this way, as a lawyer. And the same goes for thousands of other professions. What I am trying to get at is that we should all carry a notebook or somewhere to write things down when we are out and about. That way we might become much more productive people which can only be a good thing for us all. 

So I urge you the next time you are going on holiday to slip in some paper and pens into your suitcase or hand luggage because there's nothing worse than coming home from a holiday and having nothing to remember your experiences other than photos and these 'sieve brains' we all seem to have been given. If that ends up working for you and you write a few little things down then maybe you could use having one in your everyday life as well. It's just an idea and one that I am sure to write about again in the future - we can't always rely on having a keyboard in front of us now can we?