I’ve been accustomed to stressed faces for years.

When people arrive here.

For the good observer the price of the year-round competing, running and hurrying can be seen on the parental faces. The children are not yet that far, and usually they also have something to swipe in their hands, so they’re sweet.

I always think it’s a revelation to see the difference after a few days

I have sometimes thought of making a photo series: “before” and “after”. That’s of course not possible.

You can’t ask that of people you never met before.

“Hello, welcome to the Termas! It’s nice to have you! Can I take a picture?”

That’s a bit strange, right at your arrival.

And it’s not only the stress of the whole year, but also of preparing everything, packing everything, thinking about everything, and arranging everything.

There’s still a lot on the shoulders of women

Mother is still usually the one who arranges for the cat to be accommodated somewhere, that the plants get water, that the passports are okay-ed, that the children pick out the things they want to take with them, etc. etc.

The list is long. Differs per family, of course. Differs per holiday

If you go skiing you take other things with you when you go to a 5 star resort on a tropical island.

I don’t have any idea what to take when you go skiing (nor even 5 star resorts on tropical islands), but I do know what you have to take care of as an average family on an average holiday, what you have to arrange and what to think about.

And to serve you, there is a list here

Hopefully it’s useful, and it helps against small scares in the middle of the holiday as: “Oi, my anti-allergy wasp set is still on the table. Forgotten!”

Perhaps a reassurance: we have such a set here. Because well, here out in the fields there are sometimes wasps between all the butter- and dragonflies …