Post holiday incompetency
I have just returned from the most incredible trip to Sicily, complete with best friends I haven’t seen in years, absolutely epic parties and the most magical wedding in the middle. Those 16 days made up one of the best holidays of my life. To those of you reading this who were there, thanks again for making it such a bloody fabulous time! Already I miss the sunshine, the delicious Sicilian food (more about that in a minute) and the carefree feeling of no real responsibility, but most of all I miss you guys. You are all legends, every one of you – with an extra special legend shout out to the gorgeous and generous bride and groom, Elinor and Mark, who made it all possible.
I expected Sicily to be just like Italy in terms of food, but I found it to be refreshingly different. Of course there is pizza and pasta and they’re great, but Sicilian cooking actually uses a greater variety of ingredients in very simple ways. My favourite thing was the antipasti – the first course (starter) of fresh olives, grilled aubergines (literally my new favourite dish in the whole world – recipe coming soon), tomato-based caponata and my guilty pleasure, arancini; fried balls of risotto which part of me wishes I’d never discovered because now no regular risotto will ever be good enough.
Returning from holiday usually involves a nasty bump back down to earth from the rosy clouds on which you’ve been dreaming. This is the first time I haven’t experienced that sensation and I give all credit to my 19 month-old toddler, who we left behind for some Mom and Dad time and who I missed desperately from day one. Coming back to her smiles and all her new words has been as exciting for me as travelling. While my heart has been cushioned by my baby’s adorable dimples, my brain didn’t get the memo and is still like, umm…beach please? It’s so not ready for life. To the point that I’ve had to flip the Mayday switch and just stop doing things while it adjusts. Basically, I can’t multitask.
I, like most of you I’m sure, pride myself on my ability to handle the many levels of adulting without too much thought, gleaned from years of being a more or less a well-rounded, competent human being (which basically means I’m old enough to go, yes but back in MY day…). However, now when I try to adult efficiently ie complete several tasks in a day, my brain goes into full lock down mode. It appears to be teetering on the edge of imminent implosion caused by the unbridled freedom of two weeks with no responsibility. Essentially, I can only do one task per day. Wait, what? But I’m a woman! Multitasking is basically the bastion of superiority on which we stand! I’m seriously letting the side down.
Besides the usual daily routine involving work, cooking (which suddenly seems like such hard work), school runs, dog walking, gymming and other normal adult things, I also have a list of small things that need to get done which have turned into unmanageable mountains. Things like unpacking my make-up and jewellery from the trip, because everything goes in different compartments in different places and I just can’t. Things like removing stains from muddy festival clothes. Fixing a broken earring, putting my shoes back in some kind of order in my cupboard…these tasks that don’t form part of the Work-Sleep-Eat-Child-Dog equation are beyond me.
I’m sure this is just temporary and I will soon be able to cook dinner and put away the scattered travel miniatures on the same day. But for now I must choose my chores carefully so as not to over strain my still-holidaying brain. It’s hard work, all these good times.