Nothing heralds the return to work for me more than the renewing of my travel pass. Rather than a fixed month, travel passes run from date to date, a minimum of 30 days at a time at a substantial  discount.

For three weeks my card has been unrenewed, because during vacation most travel is on foot, bicycle or car when necessary.

Now though, I’m making the trip to the big smoke earlier than usual due to a stag night and thus find myself renewing slightly earlier than planned and suffering the onset of melancholia, premature as it were. It’s only a day or so earlier and granted the queue Monday will not be suffered as a result, but still it feels like too shorter time and much earlier than planned. 

It’s the start of a new year for me and has felt that way for a while now. My year runs more in tune with the school calendar than the standard Jan-Dec. It’s an effect of having children and forced vacation I guess and results in my summer holiday being the highlight of my year and the end of it.

My veg are now ready, wild cherries plucked for sauce on Jul night, our chick is growing up and it’s wonderful to be able to enjoy it for three weeks, without rushing to pack all of life in. There’s still more of the summer to enjoy I know, but with the interruptions of work, it doesn’t have the same feel. How to find and capture that feeling of summer vacation all through the year? 

But then it wouldn’t be so special…