28 july 2016, getting away from it all

Thursday 28th July 2016

I’m news’d out. In our terribly suburbanite life-trajectory, summer holidays are school-constrained to the august hot-and-expensive slot. Still, away we go. Holidays always have a pull, to somewhere and something exciting and relaxing, but they also have a push: away from work, everyday drudgery, stresses and household chores. Once upon a time I really missed news when abroad, buying a day-old english newspaper whenever I had the chance and reading it cover-to-cover on the beach, packing my shortwave radio to get yesterday’s football results. No more: now even on holiday news surrounds us. And the news has been getting ever more pervasive, ever more 24/7, ever more breathless, driven by instantaneous reaction becoming the next event. And even though I am a newsaholic, this relentless month has left me exhausted. It started with the up-all-night compulsive viewing of the referendum, and then daily, hourly, sometimes minute-by-minute, events dear boy have raced along at such a frenetic pace, not least as I’m now keeping up on twitter too (jury’s out). This holiday then, though I fear there will be a massive gap when I return, I’m also planning to get away from news as well as I hide from the sun and take a gentle dip in the water. Can’t wait.