The Holiday

One evening, Jillian came home with the information that their friends, Liz and Peter Smith, had brought a holiday cottage in the country. And that, somehow, made them start thinking s seriously about their own summer holidays.

So they sat down to discuss it. Jillian thought she would like to go Italy and Martin suggested that Spain might be a good idea. Then Jillian remembered seeing some advertisements for Sweden and Martin wondered whether Yugoslavia was a possibility. Finally, without deciding where to go, they realized that it would be wise to think about the cost of going abroad.

“Well, the first thing is to make a decision about the car.” – Jill said. “ If we don’t take it we shall have to stay in one place.”

“And if we decided to take it,” Marten answered,” we shall have to use a car ferry, either ship or plane. “A long discussion followed after which Martin had written down:

Sea ferry - cheapest - slowest - least comfortable

Air ferry - more expensive – faster - more comfortable

Fly all the way - most expensive - fastest - most comfortable

“We had better take the car ”,he said, “because we simply can’t afford to fly all the way. But if we fly across the Channel with the car, we shan’t be able to afford to stay in a hotel.” Was it his imagination, he wondered,or was Jill looking disappointed?

But then she suddenly put forward a new suggestion: “If we flew all the way,” she said thoughtfully,” we couldn’t pay the hotel bills. If we flew with the car across the Channel, we still shouldn’t be able to stay in a hotel. But if we bought a tent, we should be able to use air ferry- and we have a camping holiday. Perhaps we should be able to go to several countries, instead of one. ” It seemed the perfect answer to the problem and neither of them could find any objections to the idea. So having both arranged to have three weeks’ holiday from 1^st of August, they went along to a sports shop, and after carefully examining five different tents, decided which one would be most suitable and brought it home.

Then everything began to happen at once. Martin found that he couldn’t get tickets for the air ferry during the first week in August. But, worse still, the car started making peculiar noises, and the mechanic at Martin’s usual garage said that if he took it abroad, he would be asking for trouble. That evening Peter and Liz Smith came round full excitement because they were going to Italy with some money Peter’s aunt sent him, and they had been lucky enough to get the last two air ferry tickets for the first week in August.

“We’re very pleased for you,” Martin said weakly, then Jillian began a long explanation of their own problems. ”But that’s easy,” Peter exclaimed. ”Have our cottage. Your car’s good enough to take you there and we shan’t be needing the place because we shall be away. Now, don’t think any more about it, the cottage is yours for the first three weeks in August.”