The latest acronym on the block is SKI-er – older travellers cavalierly spending their kids' inheritance.
asserted
acronym → spend → inheritance
Those in the travel industry are using it to explain the increase in over-60s holidaying abroad.
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Those → use → over-60s
I'm one and very much enjoying it, too.
asserted
I → enjoy → it
One of the great discoveries of becoming freelance was that, after decades of being tied to a four-week holiday entitlement (five for long service), I could suddenly take as much holiday as I wished, or could afford.
uncertain
I → become → holiday
'Oh you've just been on holiday again,' people say when we return from four days in Majorca.
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we → say → Majorca
To set the record straight, I added up how many days I've been abroad this year and it came to 23 – two less than I would have taken when I was employed.
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I → set → 23
But we probably go to many more destinations.
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we → go → destinations
It's easier to simply up and leave for short breaks now that I'm no longer in the grip of school-holiday timetables and relentless work commitments.
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I → leave → timetables
We can take the cheaper travel options out of term time and head off mid-week if we wish.
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we → take → time
We're no longer having to bankroll the family holiday either (although, to be honest, I'd love to try to get our disparate blended troupe together in a villa one day) and we don't have to lure our children to travel with us by offering to take their friends.
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we → have → friends
Alexandra Shulman attends a cocktail party in 2018
I feel no shame in being a SKI-er.
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I → attend → er
The way inheritance tax is going, the money we are currently spending on easyJet and booking.com would have ended up in the pocket of HMRC, rather than my son's, anyway.
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we → go → HMRC
Pension pot is going on a new sweater
On which subject, a financial guy I was talking to the other day reminded me, as I moaned about Labour's new plans for pensions to be taxed as part of our estate, that pensions are meant to be spent on ourselves when alive.
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pensions → go → ourselves
You are number one in the list of priorities, he told me – a comment which made me feel a whole lot better about going out and buying a new sweater.
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me → tell → sweater
The heatwave has left us cracking up
London has become the crack capital of Britain.
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London → leave → Britain
Not crack cocaine, but the crevices that have sprung up on the walls and ceilings of many homes.
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that → spring → homes
This unusually hot summer shrunk the clay foundations of the city and baked the brick walls of the houses, creating terrifying faultlines.
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summer → shrink → faultlines
Our house has so many cracks I have to close my eyes as I walk around, as I've become obsessed with watching them spread.
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them → have → eyes
I long for the rain to come and stop their relentless travel, which as a sun-lover is something I thought I'd never say.
asserted
I → long → lover
A builder visited and calmly suggested solutions for the thermal cracking, reassuring me that the house would not fall down.
uncertain
house → visit → me
As he left he said he had three more visits to deal with the same issue.
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he → leave → issue
Girls crush Cruise's epic disaster movie
Galaxie Clear in independent British film Extra Geography
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Girls → crush → film
You'd imagine a company with the track record of Warner Bros would have had the common sense to go nowhere near Digger, Tom Cruise's epic disaster of a movie.
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company → imagine → movie
The film, by Oscar-winning director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, had a production budget of $180 million (£135 million) along with a marketing budget of around $100 million (£75 million).
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film → win → million
Any fool could predict this was going to be a proper turkey from just a few minutes of the trailer.
uncertain
this → predict → trailer
It must make Paramount, which bought Warner Bros last month for a cool £82 billion, wonder if it's made the right decision.
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it → make → decision
Based on a short autobiographical story by Rose Tremain, the movie is shot entirely in one location and, as far as I can see, required no elaborate and costly computer-generated imagery.
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I → base → imagery
She and her co-star Marni Duggan play the teenage schoolgirls with pitch perfect humour and pathos.
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She → play → humour
She considers 15 too young for her daughter Harper to have a perm
Although I agree with Victoria Beckham, who considers 15 too young for her daughter Harper to have a perm, I did love having one myself.
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I → consider → one
Admittedly not at 15, but 22, when I had a kind of lose-wave perm.
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I → have → perm
It gave my straight hair a delightful shaggy look rather than a tight frizz.
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It → give → frizz
At the time I hoped to resemble the actress Maria Schneider in Last Tango In Paris, an ambition which may or may not have been obvious to others.
uncertain
which → hop → others
Eventually the perm grew out and I am not sure why I didn't repeat the exercise.
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I → grow → exercise
Now, at the opposite end of the age spectrum, I am considering returning to salon curls, becoming one of those women who, in my mother's era, had their weekly shampoo and set.
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who → consider → shampoo
One hangover I'm not familiar with
Journalist Hannah Betts confided in me that, after a busy evening, she was suffering 'an introvert hangover'.
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she → confide → hangover
Apparently it's when you are suffering the effects of an overload of social activity.
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you → suffer → activity
Familiar as I am with all manner of hangovers, this is one that I've never experienced.
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I → experience → that
But it made me wonder if it's possible to have an extrovert hangover, which presumably would be when you haven't had enough company to keep you upbeat.
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you → make → you
That would be one I recognise.
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I → recognise → ?
Clearing out my life, one page at a time
My new love object is my shredder.
asserted
object → clear → time
…and 2 more, not listed.
The Aporia
