My 2019 Homeland Holidays

I have been off on my Homeland Holidays the last couple of weeks, and am now home in Scotland settling back into my daily routine. And, as always, I am already looking forward to my next trip home! (As I’ve said before, having two “homes” is hard!)

When I first started to think about my summer holidays, I was not certain if I would be working or not. And so, I thought that I might spend several weeks in The Homeland. I envisioned a very relaxing visit where I had more than enough time to catch up with everyone. But then I was offered a post-doc and that changed my plans from a 6-8-week holiday to one lasting just over two weeks.

Of course, I still wanted it to be a relaxing holiday so I decided that I would not travel to visit others. Instead, I would make people travel to see me. (I also planned to do several chores around the house for my parents, so that made it even more vital for people to travel to me, rather than travel to them. After all, I had already travelled 6,000 miles from Scotland!)

In the end, I did travel to my best friend’s house just outside of Portland at the start of my holidays. But my time was largely spent in Cle Elum with my folks, which is the way I had wanted to spend my holiday. And sadly, I didn’t get as many chores done as I had wanted to, but I did get quite a bit done. (Good daughter points have to be earned at every opportunity!)

It was a great visit but, as often happens, once I hit the halfway point of my holidays, I began to feel a bit pressured as I knew time was running out. I began to realise that I would not be able to see everyone I wanted to see, to do all of the things I wanted to do, or eat all of the food I wanted to eat. Still, I managed as much as I could in the short time I had.

The best thing about my holiday was that I had plenty of time for just sitting around the house with my folks doing “nothing”. But doing nothing with my parents is quite a nice thing for me, especially as I know that I can’t just do nothing with them every day. 

One of  The most frustrating thing about my visit was that having an all-sibling get-together couldn’t happen. I mean, most of them were at my graduation BBQ, but (other than an obligatory photo) we weren’t all “together” at the event. (Various sisters are not speaking to other sisters, and the friction can be felt by everyone else. It’s sad, but I can’t do anything about it. I do hope that the tides change soon though! But I digress…)

I remain hopeful that we will have a good sister-get-together in the future where we all get along and spend the time filled with laughter and love. In the meantime, I’ll take what I can get when I am home.

I am not certain when my next visit will be, but I am already starting to think about it. Mostly, I am trying to figure out when it will happen. And that will depend on when I find a long-term job contract and where the job is located. Basically, if I land a good job that starts either immediately after my current contract ends (30 November) or early in the New Year, then I will try to head home for the Christmas holidays. Otherwise, my next visit will be in June or July – again, depending on jobs. If I don’t have one, then I will be returning home in June when my current visa expired. If I do have one, then I will head home at the time that is best to take annual leave from the new post. So… lots of little things to determine when I’ll be home, and for how long!

But let’s not stress about when my next holiday is before I’ve recovered from the jetlag that this last one brought about!

Thank you to everyone who made my holiday a smashing success. It really was a good visit, and I am looking forward to the next one.