Anyone going on holiday?

[MrsDangermouse]

This is the kind of thing we are looking at, but as I mentioned we will decide when it gets nearer to the time. 7m or less is better for us at the moment as we can then book online with our local ferry company Condor Ferries. Anything over 7m you have to go to their office and book in person.
We like the layout with a rear U shaped lounge/bedroom but could be persuaded otherwise.

We intend staying on Motorhome aires, France Passion sites, British 'stopovers' or whatever they're called quite a lot, especially once I am retired and we start long timing in Europe.

Swift Lifestyle

We used to have a Bailey with a rear lounge - it was actually a better lounge than what we have now but we got fed up of having to make the bed up each night and the lack of external storage (a common problem in UK-built MHs). But we didn't want the more traditional Euro layout with the tiny lounge at the front.....luckily Rapido came to our rescue with the layout that works for us. But like everything in life, its a compromise

We don't actually tour very much in the UK (its nowhere near as motorhome-friendly as Europe and there are very few "aire" type places to stop) so most of our UK trips are just weekends staying at campsites. There is an organisation called Brit Stops, which I understand is somewhat similar to France Passion, but more based around pubs. Its not something I've ever really looked into though.
Our main holidays are spent touring around Europe using a mixture of aires, campsites (preferably ACSI ones) and of course France Passion (when we're in France). France Passion doesn't work out cheap though because if its a vineyard we invariably end up buying a few bottles of their wine This is one of my favourite France Passions....wine tasting at the Chateau de Nitray near Tours:

 

[TastyReuben]

Comp time? Compensation?

Probably somewhat analogous to your TOIL, though it's not formalized. Basically, as salaried, the understanding is I should work "around" 40 hours a week, and that if I fall a little short due to some emergency, that's ok, because there will be weeks where I work a little over, and we'll both just assume that it evens out.

Comp time would mean that, for all the times I work over 40 hours, I should get that overage back in "unofficial" time off down the road. However, I've never worked anywhere that tracked comp time, as it's by nature an honor system thing, but my own experience and my own tracking show that my employers have always come out way ahead. For example, I'm frequently asked/told to work overtime to get something done, but my manager (at any employer) as never, ever, not once said, "...and make sure you take some time for yourself once things quiet down."

I've worked at a couple of places with sick time like what you describe. Instead of being given a set number of days/hours, I had a set number of occurrences. It wasn't weighted like that, but if I needed heart surgery and two months off, that was one occurrence. If I had the cold and needed three days off, that was one occurrence. I never liked it, though I understood why some people did, because I knew people came to work with the cold or the flu or whatever, because they wanted to save their occurrences in case something worse happened later.

Now, a lot of employers here have moved to the "personal absence" model, which really is just time off with no notice. I get 48 hours of that (one week plus a day). It's meant to be used for any kind of miscellaneous absence - doc's appointment, refrigerator delivery, "mental health day," cold, burst pipe, whatever.

Not counting federal holidays (of which I get 10 - a lot of people don't get that many), I get 174 hours of off time. That's vacation plus personal absence, plus one personal day (used to be your birthday). I wish they'd quit with all the fancy names, just give everybody, say, 180 hours and let them do with it as they will.

 

[Wyshiepoo]

When we were on our last holiday, we rented a cottage that had an Aga, and I'd never seen one in person, and all I talked about for six months was cooking stuff on it.

We were there for a week. I made scrambled eggs, bacon and toast one morning, and a frozen pizza one night, and that was it. That was enough to do me.

Mum and Dad had an AGA when I was young. It also heated a water boiler.

I seem to recall it had two settings. Cold or blisteringly hot.

 

[TastyReuben]

Mum and Dad had an AGA when I was young. It also heated a water boiler.

I seem to recall it had two settings. Cold or blisteringly hot.

The thing is, I liked it. If I had money to burn (haha), I'd love to have one. They're things of beauty if nothing else.

We were there in May, so mornings were a little cool, and the kitchen was very small and cozy, so coming down the stairs in my altogether first thing in the morning to put the kettle on was nice. Cold bedroom, toasty warm kitchen. It just made you feel...content with things.

 

[Milkduds]

They are beautiful but I have a love/hate relationship with every stove I've ever had, the latest one being more hate than love. I wouldn't want to spend that kind of money and end up hating it. I do love the retro look of the latest one and would probably get it if I did have money to burn. However, I do not LOL.