September. The UK. Sometime in the seventies. The first day back at school after the summer holidays and schoolchildren the length and breadth of the country are racking their drowsy and still-on-holiday brains to answer the demand of writing an essay about what they did on their holidays, set by teachers whose minds are also still on holiday and can think of no easier way to ease themselves back into the terror of the new school year.
Unless you were a budding Shakespeare at the age of seven, there’s a limit to how interesting you could make your summer holidays sound. Played football. Played in the woods. Went to me Granny’s. Watched Daktari and The Banana Splits. Repeat. Ad infinitum.
Fast forward a million years and after a trip to India in 2010 I decided to do something similar, and rather enjoyed the process of putting it together. I shared it with a few friends, some of whom were foolish enough to feign interest and even enjoyment. And thus began a habit. The literary equivalent of your aunty’s post-holiday slideshow.
So this is, exactly what it says on the tin, what we did on our holidays.