2016 has not been a brilliant year. For me personally it's not been great, for several of my friends and family it's been downright horrible, and even globally (dare I mention Brexit and Trump?!) it's been pretty depressing for many. Normally when I'm feeling down I like to book a holiday. Well, okay, that's not strictly true - I don't book a holiday every time I'm having a sad or stressed moment (I eat chocolate instead). But I do start planning ideas for holidays or looking at pictures of places we've already booked to go to. It's simple - I get my kicks from experiences rather than material things, and having something to look forward to cheers me up. 2013 was a particularly nasty year for me, and I made up for it by booking loads of amazing holidays for the following year. 2014 became known officially (by me) as The Year of the Holidays. It was bloody wonderful.
When we got back from our Tenerife holiday last month, several people asked me when the next holiday was booked for. I don't think they quite believed me when I replied 'October'. But it was true - the only holiday we had actually booked was for next October half term (booked in September because it was so cheap we couldn't not!). There are a number of reasons for not having anything else booked. Lee's holiday allowance is one; he gets a pretty decent allowance in his new job, but no particular time is guaranteed - he has to book the time off work before we can risk booking a holiday. And given that there are many 'crucial' times when he's not allowed leave, it's proving a little difficult. Another issue is my sister's engagement - she was looking at possible venues for next year but hadn't yet set a date, so we were trying to keep all holiday periods free to avoid clashing (this problem has now been solved by a provisional date for the year after). Another factor is my all-too-quickly approaching 40th birthday - I know Lee is planning something but I'm not sure what, where or when. And while I really love the idea of a surprise, the one downside is that you can't look forward to something you don't know about. And, of course, money is always a problem - with a credit card bill to pay off Tenerife looming, we can't really afford to book anything else just yet. Of course, I know we will be going on holiday somewhere earlier than October - we have several ideas in the pipeline - but unless I have definite dates and destinations, I can't really look forward to them. Not properly. And the bottom line of all the above is that, despite having felt pretty miserable lately, I haven't been able to think about holidays to cheer myself up.
November is always a particularly tough month for me, and last week I got home after a difficult morning feeling rather stressed and down in the dumps. My phone buzzed with a Facebook notification and I glanced briefly at it, assuming it was relatively unimportant. I then had to look again. This is what it said: 'P&O Ferries has replied to your comment on their post.' I instantly knew what post it was (funnily enough, I don't often comment on P&O Ferries' posts). The post was a competition to win a trip to the Christmas markets in Ghent. To enter, you had to comment on the post, describing your dream European Christmas holiday destination. As I often do when I see Facebook competitions, I entered, writing a sentence about wanting to visit Lapland, with a humorous aside (at least, I thought so) about visiting Ghent being a close second. And, as I often do when entering Facebook competitions, I then thought no more about it. Until, that is, I read the Facebook notification. It's usual to get a notification that the page has commented on their post - this is where they detail the winner(s). But why would they reply to my comment? Surely they hadn't got time to reply individually to everyone? I tried not to get too excited but, sure enough, when I opened up Facebook, I read 'Congratulations, you're our Christmas getaway winner and have won a magical trip to Ghent!' To say I was surprised would be an understatement!
So, just when I least expected it, and had given up on thinking about holidays until next year at the very earliest, here was one being handed to me on a plate. It put a huge smile on my face on a day and at a time when I really needed it. Not only did I have a little holiday to look forward to (and soon - it needed to be taken by 20 December!) but I'd actually won something!
Obviously, I felt very lucky - but not in some preordained way. I don't believe that everything happens for a reason - I don't believe in fate or that things were 'meant to be'. I think there is too much crap in the world for any of it to happen for any reason other than chance. However, I do believe that there is very often a silver lining to be found, even if it's only that the tough stuff makes you stronger or makes you appreciate what you do have. I also believe that things usually tend to balance out. Statistically you have a reasonable chance of having some good 'luck' after having bad. I won the competition firstly because I entered - which already put my odds way above those of anyone who didn't enter! I have also entered hundreds of competitions over the years that I haven't won - the odds were that one day I'd win something. So, although I don't believe that I was 'sent' this holiday to cheer me up, I certainly feel lucky that it came just when it did, and I intend to make the most of it. Life is short, and it's important to grab hold of chances when you can - so we're off to Ghent this weekend! And I'm also feeling just that little bit more positive about the chances of winning that I'm a Celebrity luxury trip to Australia competition that the kids made me enter...!
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