That’s what I think of going away on vacation where there is a kitchen! This old expression dates from around the 1800’s – here’s the definition according to Wikipedia – A “busman’s holiday” is a holiday spent by a bus driver travelling on a bus: it is no break from his usual routine. By analogy, anyone who spends his holiday doing his normal job is taking a “busman’s holiday”.
The very first time we visited Maui we were very kindly offered someone’s condo – which was wonderful. We had recently emigrated and didn’t really have the funds at that stage to book into a hotel. It was wonderful exploring Maui but boy oh boy, when it got around to 4 pm every evening there was the inevitable question. :”What’s for supper?” You see cooking for your family doesn’t just mean cooking – it means deciding and decisions are something I would rather not make while I am on holiday (as well as shopping and cooking). It really gets me hot under the collar so don’t get me started…
So a busman’s holiday is going away on holiday and ending up doing what you do for a living – something you definitely want to avoid. Unfortunately as any business owner knows you can’t escape and I will always make sure I take my laptop and cell phone with me so I am in communication with my office. One thing I have done however to avoid that busman’s holiday feel is to start telling lies.
I know – it sounds terrible to admit – but I do lie. Why? People used to ask me what I did for a living and when I told them that I was in the travel industry…. well you can imagine. Yes – Busman’s Holiday. It’s like the doctor on vacation who meets people at a cocktail party and they ask him about that pain in their …. well never mind. You get my gist.
So I have to invent professions. “So what do you do?”…. “I am in sales.” “Oh yes, what do you sell?” …. long pause while searching for inspiration …. “Um, advertising space for newspapers.”
“What a coincidence – so do I! Let’s trade business cards.”
Oops! You got me!
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