A holiday....in more ways than one

I am just back from a wonderful week of sun in Lanzarote. Spending some quality time with my husband and children was just wonderful - and it wasn't just the lazy sun filled days, fun in the pool and building sand castles at the beach that helped to recharge my batteries but the chance to switch off from email, Facebook, Twitter, online news .........

I am one of those people you may have read about in recent articles who is a tiny bit (okay.....hugely!) addicted to my smart phone. It is by my side all of the time. If it is charging my even smarter tablet is with me......I literally never switch off! But why? It's not as if the world will end if I don't check my emails or Twitter feed for an hour but I feel that in an age where we CAN be contactable, by several different sources, all of the time.....I really SHOULD be!

If there are un-read emails in my inbox I feel a bit squeamish. Unacknowledged Facebook comments make me nervous and I don't want to be rude by not thanking a Tweep for a retweet.

If my phone rings I answer it - I have even been known to lock myself in the bathroom to take a work call if the kids are home from school!

I remember back in the mid-90s when I landed my first job in a pharmaceutical PR agency - the fax machine was the centre of the office, voicemail didn't exist and we had one computer that had a generic email address on it, each of the team got a timed slot in the day to use this computer to send and receive emails........sounds like another age doesn't it?

So back to holiday - I did send the odd text -  even though I'm 35 my Mum still likes to know I've arrived safely (bless her!) but I didn't glance at Facebook or Twitter, was blissfully unaware of what was going on in the world and emails waited until I arrived home.

So my post-holiday resolution is to try not to be too over-the-top about being contactable. My phone will always be by my side - after all as a PR if a journalist needs to speak to me they need to speak to me and I always want to be contactable by the school in case of any emergencies.

But evenings, mealtimes, bedtimes and weekends will see my smart phone stashed away and all of my other devices switched off!

I'll try very very hard......watch this space for an update