Do you recognise these words? Aqua Laureth sulphate.?  Limanol? Are you a chemist? If not,  then you are indeed a reader. Reading the back of the shampoo and conditioner bottles, for lack of any other reading matter, or the label on the marmalade jar has always made my family think I am quite eccentric – I was once even  caught  reading the instructions to the Polish yellow pages – but this only happens in times of extreme necessity. I am of course much happier reading a book.

So, packing this morning for our extremely long motoring holiday to Italy, I knew I had to take a lot of books. 18 days equals 18 books to my mind. But my long suffering husband put a limit on my readerly ambition. None in the suitcase. One small bag of books. So I compromised. 9 books. Plus two for  him. Maybe this way I will write more. Then I found I could fit one more into my handbag. Hooray. I’m going on holiday.
And so back to the shampoo bottle. One of the greatest pleasures of going on holiday and staying in hotels is gathering the little toiletries and soaps and taking them back home again. I then use them all year round thus prolonging the pleasures of having been away. I can make that holiday afterglow last almost the whole year. Sometimes I have to stop Jacek using them all up in situ by secreting them almost immediately we get to the hotel. We race to the bathroom. For different reasons. I wonder what my haul will be like this year ! Oh the anticipation!