In Europe, July and August are still the two most popular months to go on holiday. Sometimes, judging by the frustrated expressions, the prevailing stressful atmosphere, the drawn features and the general state of fatigue, you can only advise those who seem to be at the end of their rope  to take off and put their feet up, or they risk ending up, as the Spanish say, estirar la pata  (‘to stow your feet’, meaning to die), which would be much less fun and much more final. It’s often unforeseeable.

When you struggle to essere alla frutta , or ‘come to the end of your meal’ in Italian, you might become one who, before finishing, throws away the spoon (den Löffel abgeben ), which the Germans abhor. It is then time to leave if you don’t want, before your expiry date, to be reduced to casser la pipe  in French (‘to break the pipe’ or kick the bucket). This fateful expression comes from the battle fields of the Napoleonic wars, where amputations were often done in an assembly line, and often without anaesthetic (ouch!). Due to a lack of chloroform, the surgeon would wedge a pipe between the teeth of the unfortunate patient (in order to help him bear his pain). If, by some bad luck, this rough intervention proved to be in vain, the defeated patient, in relaxing the grip of his teeth upon dying, let the pipe fall to the ground and break. You wouldn’t like this to happen to you, would you? Take advantage of your holidays, so you can be back in the pink .