Doh!

My initial holiday plans for the coming year were to go to France in February or March, and then Toronto & Convergence late April/early May (assuming Chicago wins).

Then my parents said they'd be spending a month on the Algarve in March. Not the top of the list of places I want to go (there's loads of things I want to do in Portugal, but they are mostly from Lisbon north), but it'll be much cheaper than the France option. So I thought that was OK.

My mother just called. For various reasons to do with Air Miles I don't understand (but doesn't make me want to rush out and get any myself), they can't go in March at all, so that puts their trip into April.

Aside from meaning that I have to take two holidays in one month (which I doubt I'm physically fit enough to do), this buggers up my annual leave. My a/l year runs from April to March, so I've got about 10 days I've been saving for a trip in the early spring (amongst other things, February and March are less unpleasant if you can work in a holiday). Work used to let us carry annual leave over, but they don't any more. So that means I'll have to spend two weeks sitting on my butt at home between now and March, and then use nearly all my annual leave for the following year in one month. This does not sound like a good scenario. I will be going to grovel to my manager about this - I'm hoping the "parents living abroad" card will get me somewhere.

I'd completely forgotten how privileged I am with regard to travel living in England. There's always some combination of flights that means I can get where I want to go when I want to be there, even if it's not always from the airport of my choice and sometimes costs more than I want to pay[1]. My parents live 10 minutes from the only airport they can reasonably use (the next nearest options are 3 and 5 hours away by car and don't have much better flight options), which means they have to be able to get a flight to either Toronto or Calgary, and then connect with another flight. On top of which they're retired and don't have much money and so are dependent on the inconsistencies of Air Miles. Their most direct flight option to get to Portugal is 3 flights and that only gets them to Lisbon! I could probably get to Australia in less time, and indeed for less money.

After all these years, I've found another Top 10 Reason Why I Don't Live in Saskatchewan Any More.


[1] The most difficult aspect is the epic trek to the airport in true moving-through-treacle British travel fashion.

What's that line from Black Adder about flouncing around Europe in poncy shirts?

The BBC biopic of Byron wasn't bad at all. It was amusing, and pretty accurate. The only major bone I found to pick was that Lady Melbourne, far from being surprised that Byron was about to marry Annabella Millbanke, was the main force behind arranging the marriage in the first place.

I want all of Byron's wardrobe (except for the ridiculous military getup at the end), but all the women's costumes, with the exception of the Venetian prostitutes', were completely awful. The Romantic period was quite possibly the only time in history the men got better clothing.