Busy doing nothing

It is pretty hard doing nothing, or at least trying to do nothing on holiday. Doing nothing on holiday is the ideal, but we have all used the well-worn phrase "I'm going back to work for a rest after my holiday." On the other hand it is pretty hard to bring the engines to a complete stop. For me, at least, being somewhere new means exploring what's on offer. So this is an unusual sort of break where I have throttled back the engines to idle and in that too over-used phrase of the over 50s trying for cooldom "chilled out."
The whole thing about "doing nothing" as I recall from one of the eastern philosophers I have skimmed during my mystic period, Lao Tsu(I won't go into whether he was a person or a composite of ideas), he taught that all straining, all striving are not only vain but counter-productive. We should endeavor to do nothing (wu-wei). But what does this mean? Apparently it is not literally doing nothing, more to do with not going against the grain of what you should, according to your understanding of your nature, be doing. But it is also looking at the flow of events and striving to be spontaneous when one does presume to act. Right action in the right time, at the right place.
Hmmm wish I felt confident about such a pronouncement. I thought I was in the right place -the jetty of this island; at the right time - 12 noon; having performed the right action - getting myself there. So I waited. Waited somemore. A bird flew past and looked at me in a superior way. I waited and then I had the "I might miss my flight" thought. I recall the slight difficulty I had getting cart for my luggage this morning, could this be more than a communication breakdown, did someone know about the ferry being late....? I pulled out my book which was talking about how long it took to get from A to B back in the 16th century. Further time passes, in slight panic consult a fellow waitee, he says there is no ferry and no information about a ferry. I talk to the resort staff - "oh yes sir big typhoon up Thailand way, we've caught the tailend, might clear." I huffed and puffed a bit about timely information of squall situation, places to go, people to see, etc. His reply: "life and limb, sir ... our guests' safety, too much risky." Return to jetty slightly molified but more worried about my flight taking flight without me. The same bird (I think!) flies by - is that an ironic smile on his beak. Finally, the luggage cart arrives and I see my bag being lifted on to it. So that's it?
Apparently so, because here I sit, after frantic rescheduling of my flight (costing more - of course)and managing to get my room back, filling the blogosphere with these thoughts about my scepticism about "doing nothing" what would Lao Tsu say? "Stranded in a relative paradise - be where you are" - perhaps......