![The photos I didn’t share of our holiday [It was a dump]](https://myrise.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/The-photos-I-didnt-share-of-our-holiday-It-was-a-dump-scaled.jpg)
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Those of you who are Facebook friends with me may have seen that the family and I holidayed in the North East the other week.
I shared lovely family photos of us at Whitby, Robin Hood’s Bay, Saltburn and the like.
What I didn’t share was a photo of our accommodation.
We’d left organising it till the last minute as we weren’t 100% sure of some of the logistics (blended family, etc).
And found relatively few options available for five (no Step-Daughter for the first time) and a dog.
You’ll probably have seen that prices have gone up for holiday accommodation quite a lot this year.
And, while I’ve been mega pleased with how we’ve handled the challenges of COVID…………
16 consecutive months of either the club being closed or operating at restricted capacity…………
With the same or higher (more sessions and cleaning) costs………..
Have added up to a reasonable sized hole in the budget which needs filling over time.
So we booked an AirBnB in Middlesbrough.
Now, I’m not daft.
I’m aware Middlesbrough isn’t the most well known of holiday venues, shall we say.
But the accommodation looked fine on the photos.
And it would make a suitable base for day trips along that North East coastline.
We stopped off at Harrogate on the way to break up the journey which is, of course, lovely.
As Sat Nav indicated we were entering the final mile of the journey to our holiday home, our hearts began to sink.
As we pulled up outside the house, they dropped completely.
It was rough.
Really rough.
Maybe 30 or so houses on either side of our street.
Many looked vacant.
Some were boarded up and / or burnt out.
The first people we encountered on getting our of our car were missing most of their teeth.
Check the view out of the back of the house on the blog post.
“Let’s get inside and have an hour before deciding what to do” I said.
The house inside was fine.
As displayed and described on AirBnB.
Entirely my fault for not checking out the area.
We decided to give it a go.
It was only ever meat to be a base, which it served fine as.
Out for the day after breakfast.
Back for a late tea and bed.
It did exactly what it was supposed to do.
Move that house a few miles to the east and it would’ve bee perfect.
And it makes a good story.
A story I’m sharing with you for one main reason.
A reminder.
That the version of people’s lives we see is, at best, only part of the story.
Especially on social media.
A curated high-light reel of all the best bits.
We’re all guilty of it.
And it’s easy to think our lives are worse by comparison.
More boring.
Less enjoyable.
And that feeds into this story we have that “it’s different for me”.
Everyone else seems to have it easier.
They seem more motivated than us.
And that just makes it all harder still.
Remembering that it’s just highlight reels (which we all have but, often, quickly forget)…………
That, despite individual variances, we all have those challenges and difficulties on the way………..
That it’s how we deal with them that’s key…………
And that, at best, motivation is an “after emotion” (that comes from doing not waiting)…………
Set’s us up for success.
Much love,
Jon ‘Stig of the’ Hall
