Holiday me

Looking forward to trying on some new ways of being

Photo by Marissa Grootes on Unsplash

In less than 20 days I will be off on a new adventure. Off on holiday. To Vietnam and Cambodia.

To places I have never been, foods I have never eaten and languages I truly mangle in my attempts to be polite and at least greet people in their own language.

I am a forward planner. I know there are people who are not, I even know some of you! So I have planned the house/dog sitter, arranged accommodations and transport and researched places I want to see and restaurants I want to eat at.

Packing next. Not for me, dragging the case out the night before and hurling whatever seems vaguely appropriate and clean into it. I like to look up weather forecasts and consider the activities we will be doing and aim for carry on only. And I also want to feel like me…or even a different version of me.

And then I remember a concept I love, coined by the divine Megan Morton. Megan is an accomplished and exuberant traveller who now shares her love and gift for travel with small groups in beautifully curated tours, of places such as Paris, Jaipur and the island of Lamu. Megan believes in “holiday you”:

Holiday Me doesn’t drink. But Holiday You might. Holiday You might take long walks on the beach. Holiday Me won’t, (due to combo of laziness and one less outfit to fit in Carry On). If Holiday Me was a formal briefing it would read: look like an unsupervised person was given lots of money and went on a rampage. Holiday You though might want to lead with an air of control via a two colour neutral palette, all the while having shot nerves underneath.

For those that have to dress to social work codes, the Holiday Them might be a step up from pyjamas, repeated shoes and still-wet hair. For those that live between Bondi and a remote Hinterland farm wearing downplayed clothes for styling life, it might be custom maxi’s, collar bone length earrings, doubled down arm candy and nail art effort on left pinkie. Whatever you feel most comfortable in, to be the best you is what to pick.

Megan Morton

But who is holiday me? Is there more than one?

Former holiday me would forgo clothing and pretty much all non essentials for a special bag devoted to books. I remember my first big overseas trip. I was away for 9 weeks. I am pretty sure books outweighed clothing. In fact I took so few clothes that some wore out over the course of the trip and others were washed and sent to the Op shop on my return home as I never wanted to see them again , so regularly were they worn. I travelled as though there would be no bookshops between me and my return home and covered all kinds of reading: engrossing for the plane, light for beaches, very long to take advantage of the uninterrupted reading time, magazines for light relief…Now a kindle takes care of all of that! I fear the book allowance has now been replaced by my supplement allowance! Magnesium, Vitamin D, French Maritime Pine extract etc . Plus of course all the new medication we are trialling for my Long Covid auto immune issues.

I look back at photos of me on recent(ish) trips. Holiday me seems bolder, a bit more Copenhagen style , I seem to lean into my fair Northern European look and I wear scarves and stripes and layer more kooky things and wear my hair differently. Somehow I feel simultaneously both less and more Australian. I like European holiday me. I also drink things I don’t drink at home, eat new foods ( though I am already drawing the line at eating spiders) and see way more art than I do normally.

Holiday me loves a natty scarf….

But will European holiday me be the same as south east Asia holiday me? I figure there will be more humidity so less layers. Hair will need to be up a LOT due to aforementioned humidity ( those corkscrew curls that arrive in 70% humidity are very hard to manage!) and more than one outfit a day might be required , again due to humidity!

Between the supplements and the humidity, carry on is looking more and more remote.

Holiday me is going to try things I have never done before , and may well never do again. But holiday me is still me, so there will still be lots of people watching and talking to strangers and curiosity. But somehow holiday me feels funnier, lighter, more effortless and definitely more charming. Kind of all round better actually! Nobody knows me, so I get to play around with a new version of myself.

This got me thinking about Work me and what other “me”s there are. What other “me”s we all have. I did once have a work me that wore tailored suits and sky high heels every day. Nails were polished and neatness and professionalism ruled the roost. In some ways it was easy because it was a uniform. In fact one morning I recall my primary aged daughter watching me get dressed and asking “ Is that your work uniform?”. With a uniform you barely need to think about who you are. Though of course, we all remember the attempts to personalise school uniforms. In the 70’s when I went to school the cool girls folded their two sizes too small jumpers up to just on their rib line and hoiked their skirts up as far as they could get away with. (Which has immediatley brought to mind the brilliant Magda Szubanski character Michelle, if inclined please check out her wonderful Skinhead Etiquette video here!) Some 20 years later my daughter and her friends did similar with their uniforms. All wanting to put their own stamp on it, to say “this is me!” but all looking the same. All trying to belong.

Maybe holiday me is also trying to say “this is me!” or maybe I am trying to belong…and want to look like those around me? to blend in with my new chosen tribe? I like to think my sense of self is strong and fairly unshakeable but perhaps that's not true?

I do like the idea of taking a holiday from normal life, no matter how good that life is and getting a chance to try on new ways of being. This will be the first overseas trip for me with the Viking. So, definitely a chance for both of us to try new ways of being: 24 hours a day together with new pressures and delights ( what could go wrong???). Without daily obligations and patterns, who will we be separately and together?

I don’t know, but everyday me is looking forward to meeting this upcoming version of holiday me.