Have you ever travelled to somewhere so remote it had no mobile phone signal, no land lines, TV, radio or newspapers? Mrs Sub recently dragged The Sub and the Sublings off to such a place for some ‘fresh air’.
I’m not joking, this was not Nakorn Nowhere; this was Nakorn No-Way! Move over Unseen Thailand, welcome Un-heard of Thailand.
The first night was the worst: the strange bed, lumpy pillows, a mosquito net more like a fishing net, the ‘tu-kae’ of nighttime lizards, the machine-gun like drill of crickets; I lay awake all night waiting for this nighttime orchestra to run out of tunes until, just as I was falling asleep, I was startled awake again by the dawn chorus of birds and bees.
As the day dawned, however, the cool sea-breeze brought with it a wind of change: I was actually starting to relax, slow down and, after a delightful mid-afternoon siesta, was taking time to smell the roses. I have to confess I was actually starting to get into it. I wasn’t worrying about what was happening in the news, how my football team was doing or even what mega-important messages were lying unread in my email inbox.
With no access to the outside world, the only headline news was the amazing food we were eating; the only waves we were making were the ones in the sea; the only complaints to the agony aunt were about the limited number of days we would be there and the only business of the day was whose turn was it to go for the ice creams. Bliss!
After a couple of days in this vacuum we had rediscovered the ancient art of conversation and actually enjoyed listening to each other telling stories. The Sub family grew closer as we shared our dreams over dinner under the stars and then bounced apart again as we battled with each other for the bathroom before bedtime. Holidays!
As usual, all too soon it’s time to go head back to the future and our broadband lives. While I won’t be swapping a fire-wire for a loincloth any time in the near future, I do feel more refreshed and positive after a few days away from the news.
Unfortunately, I’ve now got a couple of gigabytes of emails to go through; hopefully I’ll have got through it all by next issue. See you next time. If you do have the chance, get out of town this summer. The change will do you good.
