I have not had a holiday for six years but I have had numerous trips. So what’s the difference between a holiday and a trip? In many ways they are the same. On a holiday you travel to a different place, you eat out and you explore. On my trips away to family and friends I have  been to a different place, I have been catered for and I have done different things. So basically in my life  the two words mean the same thing BUT there really is something extra special about a holiday. Perhaps it is because holidays are taken in a different country. Perhaps it is because, in the current climate of strikes, cancellations and Covid, there is always the chance that your precious holiday will be cancelled. The day we set out on our holiday the sun was shining and the weather forecasters threatened “the hottest day of the year”. Made us wonder about why we were going away. Definitely was not for the sun! But we were travelling to a different  country for a Family Party to celebrate a marriage and, above all, to connect with Family members. Our flight to Greece went as planned. Leaving the Airport was another matter: road signs tried their hardest to pull us back. Eventually we ended up on our way, on a country road surrounded by olive trees. The road wound through mile upon mile of olive groves with a backdrop of rolling hills. Then we spotted it: a sign reading “villa  agnanti Yay! The car climbed and climbed, winding around hazardous corners. And there it was: a villa gleaming white in the Greek sunshine. The moment we left the car we heard the constant chattering of cicadas. And we felt the warm wind blowing though the olive trees. Yes. We were on holiday.

That evening twenty-one of us gathered around a long trestle table on the patio for dinner – a delicious selection of traditional Greek dishes prepared by the Villa Staff. The piece de resistance was a cake for the birthday girl who was nine that day. She marched in beating on a drum followed by two of the Staff and a large cake lit by a single candle.  And  she  was  given  a  silver pendant  in  the  form  of  the  ‘tree   of  life’  pendant that  had  been  made  by  one  of  the  Staff.

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