Sharon Feinstein

Gordon Brown’s idea of a holiday is definitely not sharing a yacht with kate Moss, her lover, and friends in the South of France, fag in one hand , a glass of Chateau Lafite in the other. He’s gone off on his hols with wife, Sarah, and children to- wait for it- do commnity work in his Kirkcaldy constituency. I’ve been to Kirkcaldy and it’s dour, man, to say the least, no Chateau Lafite there. You might mumble that you think this is commendable and what one expects from a beleagured Prime Minister,  but I disagree. We all need to relax, hang out, do something a bit risque, or build a sand castle, crash through the surf, even ride an elephant. If you can’t relax and chill out you’ll never be able to get a perspective on what is important in life, and it certainly isn’t endless work and the grinding treadmill. Holidays enable us to see life all the more clearly, get a sense of balance, fall in love all over again. Never forget what Bertrand Russell said, One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important. So I’m counting the days till I go to Thailand and telling myself that the mounting bills, lost newspaper stories and impending costs are just  a mere trifle, an irrelevance in the face of the really important three and a half weeks of sunshine and fun. And I’ll pick up my sax when I get back, and learn to play Take Five all over again.