The simple life is good enough for me

WHAT KATI DID NEXT:

Look for the bare necessities, the simple bare necessities, forget about your worries and your strife.

I mean the bare necessities, that’s why a bear can rest at ease with just the bare necessities of life.

We’ve been watching a lot of “The Jungle Book” recently. When I say a lot, I mean twice a day, every day for the past two months.

Thankfully, it is a wonderful film and does a wonderful line in simple morals. I mean what more does one need than the simple bare necessities of life?

Let’s think about it shall we? Do we really need these huge 4x4s? TV screens the size of a wall? Designer clothes?

Do all of these things make us truly happy or should we try and stick to celebrating the beauty in life’s small miracles?

The smile of a baby. A rainbow. A sunny day. Holidays are a great leveller for all things simple in life.

Packing a car for a family-of-four, one of which is still in nappies can be a nightmare. That’s if you pack every luxury you have at home. We don’t do that, we pack the absolute minimal and drive off into the sunset panicking about all the things we have left behind. So we didn’t pack the high chair — sit him on cushions, we didn’t pack the travel cot — he can sleep in with us, and we didn’t pack any nappies — we’ll buy them when we get there. It makes life much easier and much more transportable.

Once you are on your holidays you realise that the children spend all their time in swimsuits and they love it.

They sleep like babies on a washing line as they have been running around like fools all day so there is no longer the need for a telly to calm them down before bed.

At desperate moments there was always the portable DVD player, which I have to say, at times, was a godsend.

Playing on the beach all day, splashing in the sea, running around rockpools crabbing with nets and string, takes you back to your own holidays many moons ago before Playstations and the like and when splashing and crabbing were all the rage.

Like I say, the simple bare necessities. Oh and “The Jungle Book” on DVD. We’re not total idiots.