Typical isn't it. You plan to go on holiday and the process of getting ready to go becomes so very stressful that you need a holiday by the end of it. It's so typical it's a cliché. It's such a cliché that the very process of writing about it adds to the stress - "Oh my god, this whole writing about thing it is so cliché" and that too increases the need to write about it.

So, to avoid these circular references (and I so wanted to write "circular saw" there) going too far up their own bottom (or mine). I'll just tell you straight. I'm tired, I'm in a haze of confusion and I need to put some more time into the week before I'm in a place where I can safely get into the car to go on holiday safe in the knowledge that every piece of my holiday puzzle will engage and result in my arrival in a distant location with items enough to enjoy being there.

Part of my holiday preparations involved buying luggage. I need something for hand-luggage within which I can store my laptop without it being totally destroyed. Although I have a few suitcases, some of which are not in Newcastle, my big suitcase was destroyed by the last holiday I took. It's good enough to have in the house to store things in, but it wouldn't last another flight. So, on the weekend, I went to Argos to look at their luggage.

Why!?

Why Argos?

Why did I feel the need, before even going into Argos, to go to MacDonalds for a milkshake and a muffin? I think I was trying to give myself a chav innoculation. You do something vaguely chavvy that you might like (and Maccy D's is not something I normally would go for, but I always like calories and fat in me) and that gives you a heightened tolerance. Entering Argos, I perused the "laminated book of dreams" (thanks to Bill Bailey for that reference - I can't go in there without that in my head) and decided that I couldn't fairly judge the quality or size of the cases from the pictures. I gave Argos up as a bad job.

In Tesco, I bought something vaguely bag-shaped for each of my requirements. It was more expensive than I might have liked, but it was "job done" and that was really the aim of the exercise. £10-£20 here or there will probably pay itself back with the extra longevity of a case that looks like it might actually survive the car trip home from the shop.

I can't complain about going on holiday. I need a break. I need a break from the relentless series of challenges that life and, more accurately, my own gluttony for life, keeps throwing at me. Let's hope it's a relaxing time and that the post-holiday come-down is not too extreme.

Time is ticking along, but that's its job. If it didn't, then we'd never do anything, and life would be dull, but we wouldn't even notice.