My escape from the incessant online chatter is working perfectly - Christa Ackroyd

Yes I have had weekends away.

Yes I have tackled London both for work and for pleasure (hardly relaxing) and have spent wonderful time with family and friends in our beautiful countryside, but the amount of work which came my way last year, for which I am truly blessed, has meant somehow I never quite got it together to get on a plane (oh the hassle) and really get away from it all.

Instead I crammed my brain with the darker side of life and sat for hours upon hours in studios some boiling, some freezing, dwelling on things which I have to say were more often than not things which are sometimes best left in the past.

And I gave myself no time to smell the roses which is madness. Because the more I put off finding some sunshine both in reality and for the mind the more hassle it seemed to be to organise it.

And the more I forgot that it was the hassle of daily life I needed to escape from, if only for a few days.

And so I write to you from the sunshine of Morocco from a stunning small hotel away from the hustle and bustle of the Medina and the main square set amidst olive groves, where pomegranates grow on trees and the coffee, as you might expect, is hitting exactly the right spot.

Here you can juice if you want to, you can go to the gym every day or you can eat delicious tagines and moreish flatbreads.

We have gone somewhere in between and decided our five days will be alcohol free, we will walk for at least an hour a day and then we will flop. And it is flopping I am doing as we speak.

It is mid morning. The cockerel decided to crow at around 6am which set off the donkey braying and in turn the dogs barking.

No matter it was a dawn chorus that at least woke me with the sounds of nature. Not the television or social media which I usually awake to.

I am now up having breakfasted on fruit and freshly squeezed orange juice and seated by the pool in the shade .. even though it is a perfectly manageable 23 degrees… but still bright enough to make it impossible to see my screen, while my pal has gone for a massage.

And until a couple of hours ago I had forced myself to undergo a complete technological detox which means I have not spent hours upon hours scrolling through socials and the newspapers.

And slowly, because it is not in my nature to relax and do nothing, I have come down to a point where I am both virtually and literally horizontal.

And only when you do that can you appreciate how much we all need to do the same.

I totally appreciate I am lucky, very lucky. But I have left it too long to totally dedicate myself to some valuable me time. Is that wrong? Try it. You will find you deserve it.

Even my choice of book is designed to reflect what I felt I must do. And that is relax, reflect and reinvigorate.

And so Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations has proved to be the most perfect antidote to the chaos of our daily lives. And I am wondering whether you can feel it in my column this week.

Because the noise has stopped. The incessant sound of often cynically contrived chatter has been cut off and instead of being angry, or even engaged I realise I am bored with being presented with things that are created to shock me. To agitate me. So here goes.

Kanye West has been banned from Twitter (X) for his antisemitic, far right Nazi loving misogynistic ramblings. And I don’t care.

He was only banned because he personally thanked Elon Musk for providing him with a platform. And that offended the man who owns X not the actual inflammatory words written.

And so I would say this. If Musk can ban a crazed so called musician who parades his wife in absolutely nothing in what is now being dubbed as Emperor’s new clothing then he can and should ban all the harmful, downright dangerous inflammatory content that incites anger, dissent, division, fear, loathing and even violence. But he won’t.

Because that is what makes him his money. So this week I deleted my account. And felt a whole lot better for doing so. That’s the kind of detox I needed. So much tastier than a seaweed juice and just as good for you.

Then there is Gino.

For heavens sake his antics were old fashioned, out dated and innately childish. And for every right thinking woman totally unfunny. But they were positively encouraged for years.

They (they being the producers and TV makers) laughed at his sexist jokes. They paraded him naked or half naked in pinnies and in front of Gordon Ramsey’s mother and showed it on the telly.

In other words they hired him for his Italian stallion cheeky chappy antics, because they stupidly thought we would find it funny. Some did. Some, like me, didn’t. But who is to blame there?

As Gino says he has appeared in eighty productions. He has never changed his act which took him from being a chef to hosting prime time television.

But we have changed. We don’t find casual sexism funny. And it’s taken until now for the TV companies to catch up. Do they warn him? Do they ask him to change?

No they drop him like a hot potato when it is equally them who have been stirring the pot. It’s all so bloomin’ boring. But try as I might I cannot summon up anger about it. More a weary sigh.

There is so much happening in the world which is more important than he said she said. Look at me, aren’t I scandalously shocking? And that is the mood I am in after a few days in the sunshine.

Among the best things to have come out of my little technology detox were the few words sent by Twitter, X or what ever it is called this week.

Goodbye. We are sorry to see you go. No you are not. But when one becomes a thousand when a thousand becomes a million then you might be.

Until then Marcus Aurelius calls. He might have lived almost two thousand years ago but he speaks more sense than most of what is fed to us right now.

So remember ‘Today I escaped from anxiety. Or no I discarded it. Because it was within me, not outside.’

Not a bad one to ponder on today I think. Cheers. And in the words of the TV advert for a certain brand of shampoo.

Remember. You are worth it.