Bank Holidays – It’s Going To Be A Long Weekend

Sorry, that was not exactly the blistering return I had planned. I got distracted once again, this time with various developments in my other writing cap as “aspiring novelist”. However, after two days of storming the fictional castle, I have some time free to do a bit of this.

Because it’s a long weekend, don’tcha know. A few times a year, for various reasons, we get Monday off work in order to sit around in our pants and scratch for a day longer. So what can one do with an extra day of holiday? How does it affect you? Let’s see…

Go on a tiny holiday!

I am not sure I’ve ever done this, but I’ve heard the rumours. Apparently some people take the extra day of weekend as a cue to vacate their hometown and go stay in a different one, admire the slightly different town centre, have a couple of nice meals, possibly some geographically dislocated sex, then come back again.

Hence why when transport problems inevitably spring up on these holiday weekends, involving cancelled trains, blocked roads or a volcano grounding aircraft (it could happen!), the complaints are multi-numerous. Still, nice work if you can get it. Many don’t.

Make tedious small talk!

“So, what’ve you got planned for the long weekend?”

I’ve had this conversation so many times in the last four days that I pretty much want to cry. Including myself, because I’m as guilty as anyone for using it as, y’know, a thing to say.

And all I have discovered is that most people I know don’t go on tiny holidays, they simply use it as an extra day of weekend. So more time to see friends, do personal projects, housework… yeah. Hence the name “long weekend” I suppose.

Go shopping!

Wait, no, you can’t. Well, you can try, but there’s a good chance that half the stuff you want will be randomly closed, unless you want food from a supermarket. Or live in central London, where they don’t really care about holidays, aside from perhaps Christmas.

And part of me suspects you could probably go buy mediocre designer tat on Oxford Street even on Christmas Day. Oh, and you can’t take the extra day to do domestic administration tasks because the banks, post offices and governmental departments will almost certainly be closed.

Afterword

In many ways, the best part of these holiday weekends actually comes afterwards. That being, of course, the four day week. Yes, you’ll probably spend half the time confused about what day it is, but at least you don’t have to do as much work. Which, to be honest, can’t be bad.