平台严格禁止发布违法/不实/欺诈等垃圾信息，一经发现将永久封禁帐号，针对违法信息将保留相关证据配合公安机关调查！
2010-5-30 06:28
For my holiday this year I stayed at home. Yes, home. I don't mean that I went on holiday in England either. I mean that I just didn't go to work for two weeks.
You could make an economic case for this, but the truth is that I couldn't be bothered. If we go on a family holiday, who books it? Who makes sure everyone is packed? Who gets everyone up in time and then directs us to the correct long-term parking (which also has to be booked)? Who then spends the journey arbitrating between Cost Centres about who has whose iPod wireless headphones and other such disputes? And then, when we get there, who has to arrange the catering? The phrase “self-catering holiday” is an oxymoron. For me, self-catering is never a holiday. It might be a holiday for everyone else, but who does the meal-planning and most of the supermarket runs? Who does the laundry? Women might have achieved equality in (some) careers and compensation, but those of my generation certainly have not achieved it at home. And definitely not on self-catering holidays. It doesn't even work if you book a fully staffed villa – I did that once, and arrived exhausted, only to find that I was still expected to do all the menu planning. And, in my experience, the alternative, a hotel, means suffering either hideous food or heinous expense. No, this year I stayed at home for two weeks and hired a cook. I had done this before, several years ago, and have wonderful memories of that summer, eating in the garden every day. Sadly, I didn't manage to book the weather as well and so we ate in the kitchen most days. But it did mean that I didn't see a supermarket or peel a potato for the whole two weeks. Result! And how did I occupy everyone? I sent Mr M to work (he has had four overseas golf jaunts this year alone, so I thought that was fair) and CC#1 was also working. So it was just the other two, and I made sure that they had a steady supply of friends. This gave me the opportunity to go flying every morning at Oxford airport. Yes, I am still learning to fly. Fixed wing, not rotary, for those of you who are curious. I have not yet flown solo, but two weeks of daily lessons have got me a lot closer. My vocabulary is developing rapidly, for I am having to learn a whole new language. For example, attitude is not something displayed by teenage boys, and NSW is a meteorological term rather than a state in Australia. It gave me great pleasure to add to the most recent round of form-filling for keyman insurance that I was learning to fly, which along with my body mass index must give the underwriters something to get out their calculators for. Like shooting, flying (at least at the beginning) allows no room in your brain for anything other than remembering all the things you are supposed to do to get up into the air and back down again safely. Like taking your clothes off in front of a new lover, much of learning to fly feels very strange at first, but gets easier the more you do it. I welcome the utter concentration required that stops me thinking about the unfairness of self-catering holidays, the cost of private education or indeed anything else. I also like learning again. My instructor tells me that the three most useless things in aviation are 1) fuel in the bowser; 2) sky above you and 3) runway behind you. Oxford airport has a 1,553-metre runway that can take serious jets, so I can see it for miles around and never run out of room taking off or landing. Mr M is not a fan of me learning to fly, believing that it increases the odds of him being left to organise the self-catering holidays. But of course, if I ever qualify, I might be able to do everything one day. Book the villa, change the currency, fly the plane... 今年我度假时就呆在家里。是的，在家。我的意思也不是在英国国内度假。我的意思是，就是两个星期没去上班而已。
从经济角度你能列举出这样做的理由，但事实是，我就是不愿意给自己找麻烦。如果我们全家一起去度假，谁来预订一切？谁来确保每个人都装好行李？谁按时把每个人叫醒，然后指引我们抵达正确的长期停车场（这也需要预订）？谁一路上为成本中心们裁决谁拿了谁的iPod无线耳机，以及其它类似的争论？然后，等我们到达目的地，又是谁必须去安排膳食？ “膳食自理的休假”这个词是矛盾修饰法。在我看来，自理膳食怎么也算不上休假。对其它所有人来说可能是休假，但谁来负责用餐安排和大多数超市之行？谁来洗熨衣物？女性可能在（某些）职业领域和薪水方面实现了平等，但在家里，我这一代人肯定没能实现平等。而在自理膳食的假期里也绝对没有平等可言。 即便你预订了人员配备齐全的度假别墅也没有用——我试过一次，等精疲力尽到那儿时，却发现还得指望我来负责所有的菜单编制。而且，依我的经验，另一种选择：酒店，则意味着不是得忍受可怕的食物就是忍受可憎的费用。 不，今年我在家待了两周，还雇了个厨子。几年前我曾这样做过，每天在花园里用餐，对那个夏天有着美好的回忆。可惜的是，这一次我没能想办法把天气也预订好，因此多数日子里我们是在厨房用餐。但这意味着在整整两周的时间里，我没见去过一趟超市，也没削过一个土豆。这就是成效！ 那么我是如何让每个人都有事儿干的？我让钱眼先生去上班（他光是今年就已经有四次海外高尔夫之旅了，因此我觉得这样很公平），成本中心一号也在工作。所以就剩下另外两个，而我确保他们不断有朋友来访。这样我就有机会每天早上去牛津机场开飞机。 是的，我还在学习开飞机。固定翼飞机，不是直升机——如果你们感到好奇的话。我还未独自一个人飞行过，但连续两周每天上飞行课让我离那一刻近多了。我的词汇量飞速增加，因为我不得不学习一门全新的语言。比如，飞行姿态(attitude，通常是“态度”的意思)不是十几岁的男孩表现出的东西，NSW是一个气象词汇，而不是澳大利亚的一个州（新南威尔士New South Wales）。在最近为关键人物保险进行了一轮填表大战之后，学习开飞机又给我带来巨大乐趣，和我的身体质量指数一样，它肯定让保险商不得不拿出计算器来仔细算一算。 与射击一样，驾驶飞机（至少在开始阶段）没有给你的大脑留下任何思考其它事情的空间，你只会牢记能让你飞上天空并再次安全返回地面的所有应该做的事情。就像在新情人面前宽衣解带一样，刚开始学习开飞机许多时候会感到很奇怪，但练习得越多，就变得越容易。我乐意享受开飞机所需要的注意力绝对集中，这让我不再考虑膳食自理假期的不公平、私人教育的成本或其它任何事情。我也喜欢再次学习的感觉。 我的教练告诉我，飞行中最没有价值的三件事情是：1)加油车里的燃料；2)头顶的天空和3)身后的跑道。牛津机场有长达1553米的跑道，足以供真正的喷气式飞机使用，因此我在数英里范围内都能看到它，从来都不会没有起飞或降落的空间。钱眼先生并不支持我学开飞机，认为这会增加他留下来组织膳食自理假期的几率。不过，当然，如果有一天我具备了资格，我或许就能在一天内做完所有事情。预订别墅、兑换货币、驾驶飞机…… 译者/管婧 |