Family Holiday

After completing the Permaculture Design Course in Tennessee I fly back into the UK to spend a couple of days in London with some friends who happened to live on a houseboat on the Thames. After my last evening of having dinner on the roof of the boat and listening to the music coming from a concert in the 02 Arena which was finished off with a large firework I head to Torquay. A little town on the South Coast of England which is surrounded with wonderful walks and sea activities. One of these days we decide to go jet skiing near Torquay, on the drive down to the harbour we are blessed with sunny hot weather but as we get closer to the sea clouds start coming in to cover most of the previously blue sky. "Right make sure all your lifejackets are securely fastened and then jump onto the jet skis." We are instructed by a man that had briefly gone over the controls and rules to then jump onto one of the jet skis himself. We drive out to the open sea and to my surprise my sister is really going for it and bringing the speed to its max. I remembered the last time we had gone jet skiing: I had managed to throw us off the machine by taking too sudden turns, she was still too insecure at that point to throw me off. God that was funny. As I think this I see how my stepfather gets thrown off by his niece and flies through the air in a large arc to then land 'softly' in the stormy sea. "I lost my prescription goggles." He complains as we stand on solid ground again, his facial expression still showing the adrenaline that the jet ski had made him feel. "We should do that more often though. The energy it gives me is great, it's like conquering the sea a little bit." He says with a big smile starting to form on his face. Robin the adrenaline junkie, what a funny thought considering his usual self that tends to freak out if there is too much height between him and the ground. We drive back to the House that we had rented for the holiday to start packing our bags as we had to leave the following day. After a game of golf, well a mix between golf and mini golf, we catch the train to Gatwick Airport. The train takes the route along the sea and we are blessed with beautiful sceneries on both sides, times like these really tire my camera out. We arrive at the airport and as it turns out we got business class tickets because they were only a couple of pounds more than economy. This meant we got to stay in the business lounge, something I had never done before and which was tremendously exciting. Wifi without a time limit, endless amounts of food, all the alcohol one could possibly imagine and all of that for free. Hence we didn't really mind that our flight had a 2 hour delay, which was something I only overheard as I was stuffing myself with food. Every time one of the plates got emptied on the buffet another one got carried out within seconds from a 'magic door'. While looking at this procedure a couple of times I thought that this is what the consumerist culture had turned into. A process of instant gratification where we as the consumer don't really have any other option but to take and use. It is understandable why most people keep on clinging to this way of life and don't think about what this lifestyle is actually causing or how it could even be created in the first place. It is near impossible to tell people this cannot last, well telling them is probably quite easy. But to have the mainstream culture understand and fully grasp the concept of sustainable living is going to be a difficult task indeed.