PLANNING FOR TEXAS

So, my colleague Joe is off to Texas.

That's the State, not the homecare store.

"What's the plan then? What will you do while you're there?"

He shrugged his shoulders.

"I dunno," he mumbled. "We're just going to hang out."

Another mystifying attitude to life.

"I'd have a plan if it were me," I said. I went on to list the three things I thought he should definitely do while in the Lone Star State. I counted them off on my fingers.

"Buy a stetson," I said, enthusiastically. Joe looked unsure - as if a massive cowboy hat would look ridiculous on the head of an associate software engineer. I told him that that's what would make it funny.

"Then you should eat a steak - actually, you're bound to eat lots of steaks in Texas. But definitely go to a steak house."

"Third," I continued, "Go along to a rodeo. You'd love a rodeo."

I'm not the world's most organised person, but I don't think I could go on holiday without a plan. It doesn't have to be rigid, like a fixed unmoveable schedule, just a plan. It can change or even be replanned, but a plan gets you moving.

Without a plan you end up driving out of your way to see places you've thought of at the last minute, you waste your time, getting up too late, going hungry and annoying people. There is much more freedom when you have a plan, I think.

Then again, this might be why I end up going on holiday on my own.

"Have you been to America before?" I asked him.

"I've been to Belgium," he said.

I wished him well.