to try and make my house feel like I’m on holiday...

[shakeituntilyoumakeit]

Other than drinking Fanta lemon, getting the paddling pool up and eating grilled bbq meat at lunchtime to try and recreate that holiday feeling what else can I do, we have been shielding and trying to make it feel different for when I’m not at work....

Roll your towel up on your sun bed. Use sun cream because the smell will eminate holiday vibes.

Go to Paris
picktheif pockets, sleep in a cupboard, speak english to your family but dont understand their english, keep the bathroom filthy, wee standing up, queue for everything.....

Also switch Netflix into French

Empty your fridge totally apart from two bars of Milka chocolate and some weird fruit juice in a funny shaped glass bottle.

Leave a half eaten packet of paprika flavour crisps lying around.

Sorted.

My cousin is a DJ and they had an Ibiza party in their garden. All their neighbours joined in across 6 adjoining gardens, all raving, drinking beer, lying on inflatable unicorns etc.

It looked amazing. Not all neighbours are grumpy!

Toilet-wise, you could dig a hole in the ground and hover over it in disgust to do a wee (a la French motorway toilets in the 80s). Or when you do a number 2 put the toilet paper in a little bin instead of down the toilet.

That may be taking things a bit far....

White bedding and towels! I want to get a ceiling fan out in our bedroom for maximum ‘beach but in Thailand’ vibes haha!

We holiday in our spare room sometimes and have done for years. It's en suite, opens on to the garden and is nicer than our actual room but 2 floors away from the dcs rooms, which was an issue when they were little.

I have holiday toiletries in there, a little travel kettle and speaker to play chill out music. I'm strongly contemplating buying a mini fridge

Outside we have fairy lights, loungers and I put my towel out. Next door actually have a swimming pool (but are unfortunately arseholes) so we just get to listen to them having pool parties.

Get busy with the epilator and hope that you have timed it right in terms of injuries recovering for arrival at your destination Vs regrowth coming back too soon...

Pot up some Canary Island Palms for indoors (£4 - Wilco) - so it feels like you’re in the med.

Set the ipad radio to “OFF Radio” in Thessaloniki Greece for some live chillout music, or Cafe Del Mar radio from Ibiza...

Whiz up a litre of iced coffee before adding in half a bottle of Kahlua...

Pack your and carry them around the block. Can’t get back into the house until you’ve queued and shown your passport. Whole family crams into one room at the ‘hotel’

Download the latest trashy holiday songs from your country of choice. (mine is Spain). Play in repeat. I used to work in Spain during the summer for many years and have a playlist of songs for all my past visits an have been on a nostalgia trip.

@Marsalimay - thanks for the video. That's dinner tonight sorted!

We have formed quite a bond during lockdown and become quite good friends ( the 5 houses) meeting every friday for gin at 5pm outside our houses we r away from each other so socially distancing and all similar age to us. I actually wanted music off in evenings as worried about neighbours, they told me to have it on as liked listening to it and one of them r thinking of doing a garden concert which they had planned to go but is cancelled for their anniversary

I think it's highly unusual to find one household, let alone 5, who all want to listen to the same type of music at the same time for two whole days. You'd think at least one would like a quiet morning/dinner/afternoon/evening at some point. Sounds as though you have a rare neighbourhood there, long may it all last!

Let's swap notes @rosegoldwatcher I went for ingredients this morning and think I have everything but the elusive pine nuts.

*bibbitybobbitycats

Duggeehugs82

We also hosted a music festival in our garden (just me , husband and 2 children), 3 days music from youtube on tv in garden on homemade stage

Oh, your poor neighbours!*

Hilarious!

All their neighbours joined in across 6 adjoining gardens, all raving, drinking beer, lying on inflatable unicorns etc.

I'm not a grumpy neighbour but this would drive me bananas!

@Marsalimay - have added 'jar of roasted red peppers' to the shopping list and (because I don't like goats' cheese) some Boursin. I think that I have everything else.

Have a mini disco at 8PM every night using this playlist:

Make the kids sleep on crappy fold up beds in your bedroom to recreate sharing a hotel room. Nobody should sleep properly for several nights.

Make slushies in the blender.

Block all the English channels on your TV except Sky News. If you have Kodi, watch random German channels when you go to bed.

Shop in Lidl or Aldi so you can buy lots of random European brands. Get some long life milk so tea tastes a bit weird.

@rosegoldwatcher Well, I did it, and it went down great. Potatoes could have done with longer, and it could have had some greens. Stuffed peppers were my favourite bit.

I wish the same team did similar videos for a selection of dishes of other cuisines.

I’m so desperate to go out shopping tomorrow to prepare for this but as I’m shielding I’m going to have to just do the best from the house.

I’m going to get the kids backpacks together with books and activities for “the plane” and make us all sit in the lounge and have breakfast whilst watching a crap film at 5am, maybe even with a gin to simulate the airport/plane feeling.

Am deffo going to have a tidy round tomorrow to put anything away that doesn’t need to be out and put my clothes out for the days

I’m also going to pack a beach bag with the stuff I need to accompany my sunbathing.

I love all of these thank you!

@Marsalimay - I cooked it tonight.

I added whole toasted pine nuts to the cheese stuffing for texture. Peppers were definitely the best part of the meal.
My chicken was too dry. (My fault for delaying the meal to do the Virtual On-Line Quiz!)
Potatoes were gorgeous!

Large deep paddling pool, cocktails (start at noon), swimming costume, BBQ, fairy lights in garden, Hawaiian Tropic suntan lotion. Don't leave house or garden for 24 hours and I feel like I'm on holiday abroad.

Thought of one. Sleep on the opposite side of the bed that you normally do. It'll feel like you're somewhere different. Christ I'm boring. Loving this thread by the way.

Not sure if it's been said already but BBC good food mag has a feature on holiday food from different places this month.

So we should be landing in Greece right... now...

Have cancelled this upcoming week's annual leave from work but still taking next week's and the weather's looking good for it.

Fortunately we've been to this destination before so I can close my eyes and imagine it all (or unfortunately as I know exactly what I'll be missing).

Interestingly DH changed jobs recently and has not booked the time off

Take photographs all day - the view from your window, yourselves having breakfast, your visit to the supermarket etc. then share your 'holiday photos' with family and friends. They won't be any less boring than normal holiday photos.