NIEU-BETHESDA NEWS - With the soaring cost of fuel, going on regular holidays is becoming a luxury that few can afford.
On the positive side, however, us Karoo dwellers are fortunate to live in a place that many people long to travel to - we just forget how wonderful it is due to the fact that we are absorbed in the humdrum of daily routine.
It is quite possible - and well worth - making a conscious effort to see your own village or town through the eyes of a visitor.
You will be pleasantly surprised by just how much of a break you CAN have, without heading off to far-flung places!
In order to have a holiday at home, some changes have to be made in your head, your heart and your home:
- Switch off the wi-fi, pack away all devices, don’t check your email or answer your phone.
- Wake up when you want to – set no alarms. And sleep when it comes to you too.
- Buy some pre-cooked meals and take turns to cook ‘holiday food’. Have long slow meals around a table – not in front of a TV.
- Put fresh linen on all the beds, some flowers in the lounge.
- Take time to sit on your stoep and look at your space with fresh eyes, as if you were there for the first time.
- Order take-outs, watch late night movies, read a few books, page through a magazine.
In your town or village:
- Eat out at your local restaurants, choose something you have never eaten before. Eavesdrop on what others have to say about your town.
- Walk somewhere new – take a different path – we have valleys and mountains that are seldom seen out here.
- Greet people you meet in the street as people you have never seen before. Forget the history you may have with them. View them for what they are at first sight. Strike up a conversation!
- Take a walk with a camera and photograph your town through new eyes. Focus on themes – shadows, ice, frost, light, faces. Take your pictures home and make them into something beautiful.
- Visit your local museum – in Bethesda the Owl House and Fossil Centre are world class heritage sites. Look at them fresh and new. Marvel at how much good work goes into keeping them running.
- Embrace the donkeys on the streets, the goats and the sheep. For a few days, see them for how quaint they are.
- Walk around with a bag and collect as much litter as you can – do this every day.
- Have coffee at one of our wonderful cafes – and chat to the tourist as if you are one. Share with them the hidden gems that you have discovered. Help out if the proprietor seems snowed under.
- Take time to shop at your local grocery store – amble through slowly and choose something that you wouldn’t normally.
- Talk to your children – listen to them too. Wrestle on the winter lawn and marvel at the blue blue sky, simply because you can.
- Take note of the feathery visitors flit into your yard – fill up the birdbaths and give them some seed.
- Do something nice for someone or something. Donate a kennel to a dog, a bag of oranges to someone small, a blanket to an old man around a fire, give of your time to someone who might just need a warm conversation.
A holiday in your hometown has incredible benefits - it costs less, you are off the busy roads, you can relax totally and, if you change your perceptions, can see your world through totally new eyes.
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