Save it for a Rainy Day

I visited a friend the other day. We exchanged pleasantries. I asked about her new baby. She asked about my holiday. The baby was fine, except for the usual sleep problems and unpredictable bowel activity. Then it was my turn. After I'd waxed lyrical at some length about the lake, the mountains and the autumnal foliage in the vineyards she looked at me quizzically. "You two really are outdoors people, aren't you?" she asked. She's known me a while; she reads my blog; she edits my submissions to my column on an expat website. I thought about what she had said and had to agree. Sporty? No. Fit? No, not particularly. But outdoors - yes! "I guess you don't mind about the rain, then" she said "living here."

Actually I do mind. I'm not the hardy outdoors type - battling it out in all weathers. I don't ride my bike in the snow like the Dutch do - I don't even have a bike! But I love being out of doors. Keep me cooped up in the house for more than a day and I go crazy. I love to walk; I love to observe the passing seasons; I love to sit in cafes; I love just to see what's going on in the outside world and what my neighbours are up to. The first thing I do in anybody's home is go to the window and look out. The garden always seems more interesting than indoors; so does the street. I like to admire the trees and spy on the neighbours. The next stage would be to examine the bookshelf. You can tell such a lot about people from their books.

But on holiday we go out. We make contingency plans like everyone else - we take DVDs with us, or a jigsaw, we look up local museums and shopping malls and tell ourselves we'll go. We save them up 'for a rainy day'. But when the rainy day comes, what do we do? We go out! We walk. We go to the beach or the park - just in case the sun comes out - we don't want to miss it. We go to the beach or the park. We huddle under trees, we shelter in cafes, but we save all those other worthy occupations, those cultural indoor pursuits, for 'tomorrow' - in case the weather really gets bad.