Itty Bitty Kitty Residency, or, Where Your Heart Resides

Image: catversushuman

In everyone’s circle of acquaintances there’s at least one person who’s a proud mother or father to a furry friend. You might know that person very well because it’s one of your closest (and probably weirdest) friends, or you might just know the person from talking to them every once in a while at a friend’s house. It doesn’t matter how you know them. What does matter, however, is how you remember that person. Once that person reveals their passion to you, you can never unsee certain aspects and unthink certain thoughts.

Five Dogs, Ten Books and Me

With the financial crisis and its aftermath still haunting the people in Europe and the United States, staycations seem to have become very popular again. Enter the term into Google and you will get a dazzling amount of pages offering strategies to improve your holiday at home. Staying at home, however, has been en vogue for lesser reasons in the not-so-distant past. At least in Germany. I’m talking, of course, about the summer of 2003; then-chancellor Gerhard Schröder cancelled his summer vacation after the Italian state secretary for tourism insulted the scores of German tourists that flock to Italy every year. Not only was this incident widely debated in the German media (and not only in the yellow press, even Die Süddeutsche, one of the most respected German broadsheets, featured an article on the issue), it also inspired comedian Elmar Brandt to come up with a song called “Zuhause” that combined German lyrics fitted to the chancellor’s vacation-cancellation with the music for the song “Azzuro” (the song Germans associated with Italy). Soon, the discussion shifted to whether Germans should emulate their Chancellor and stay at home as well.

The great escape into the backyard

'Staycation' is a trendy new word. In times of recession and austerity programs, the trend towards staying at home may have rather practical reasons: people just don't want to spend their hard-earned money on such dispensable things as a getaway. Of course, some may also be put off by the enormous amount of work that goes into planning and preparing a trip. You sit in front of the computer for days and nights on end, ransacking the web for the cheapest flights and accomodations; you spend unreasonably high sums of money in the local shopping mall, investing in swim wear, travel guides, and fashionable sunglasses. And for what? After all, chances are that your vacation will turn out to be nothing more than a sequence of stressful experiences. Don't we all know the harsh reality of traveling? Delayed flights, miles and miles of traffic jams, spoiled food at the hotel buffet. So why take all that trouble, if you can just enjoy a peaceful time-out at home?