Bank Holiday Mondays vs. Bank Holiday Fridays – the debate starts here… for a bit.
Here in Britain, the scheduling of public holidays is much different to elsewhere in the World.
If you have a pocket diary (and too much time on your hands) you’re probably well aware of this, if you look at the table near the front of the book. Around the world, the taking of public holidays appears to be a random thing – and more frequent, ho-hum…
In the UK, with the exception of xmas & easter weekend, we seem to have our public holidays welded onto Mondays – there’s one coming up as I write oddly enough.
Why is this?
Is this a good thing?
And is there a case to be made for switching our public holidays to Fridays?
Apart from those four holidays that have their roots in Christendom, our other holidays are referred to as “Bank” Holidays & thereby hangs a tale.
According to the good folks at Wikipedia, back in Victorian times the Bank of England made allowance for as many as thirty-three days a year when the banks under their wing could close. No specifics have been given, so perhaps these were local holidays, back in the days before rural England was mashed into urban England – you know, like in the Olympics.
An 1871 parliamentary act fractionally reduced those 33 days down to 4. Yes, four! You hate banks. You hate governments. You know why…
The days recognised were Easter Monday, Whit Monday, the 1st Monday in the month of August & Boxing Day. Xmas Day & Good Friday were a gimme, nice of them. The status quo on these days remain for about a century until the 1970s. The first Monday in May was marked, Whit Monday was phased out, the last Monday in May permanently being marked instead. The August holiday was shifted back to the last Monday. Oh, and it was decided that New Years Day would be another work free day. Probably for the best…
But you see, being generated by bank interests, Monday was felt to be best for business. We’re closed Saturdays & Sundays, Mondays… there you go. We have your money, live with it, Bah-ha-ha.
So, you get your long weekend. But at what cost?
Well, the Friday before the weekend is unbearable, you can barely put pen to paper. You worry about the weather, the traffic. And then the Monday comes & you can’t really enjoy the day. Because the voices in your head are telling you that you’ve got to go back to work tomorrow. And it’ll be Tuesday, and they’re worse than Mondays, am I right?
None of that would happen if we embraced the Bank Holiday Friday!
For starters, there wouldn’t be that unworkable day beforehand. And that “back to work tomorrow” day would be Sunday & hey, we’re used to that. And if rains on the Friday – hey maybe it’ll pick up for the next two days.
So there’s my proposal – like it or lump it. What say you?
Now to work on my plan to re-gain those 30 odd holidays those evil Victorian philanderers stole from me…
A case of mistaken identity…
I really don’t see enough of my old workmate Claire.
Claire – with her unique dress style which suits her down to a tee. Claire – who would always second guess us with what colour her hair would be on an almost daily basis.
Claire – with her love of Birmingham City FC, Joe Hart, Lee Pace, Pushing Daisies & the musical Wicked.
Claire – who always makes your day special.
I miss Claire!
So, you can imagine how delighted I was the other day when passing by on the bus a local Starbucks* to see Claire stood outside! (* one of her favourite haunts)
Claire!
Smoking?
And therefore, not Claire… Boo!
This, ladies & gentlemen, was a case of mistaken identity.
No doubt you’ve experienced a similar experience (and if so, let me know). I would suggest this falls into two distinct forms…
1) The Name’s the Same
The Muse was telling me about something that happened to an actor pal of hers. She moves in such glitzy circles. Let her take up the story…
“One of my best friends is an actor named Ben Lawson. He received a call from an insurance company earlier this year demanding to know why he’d changed his country of residence from Australia to UK without telling them. He insisted he hadn’t – and explained that he’s English and has never resided in Australia. But they were having none of it and several calls went back and forth…
Finally it emerged that the person they were trying to reach was also an actor called Ben Lawson (who was on Neighbours) with the same date of birth no less. What are the odds?”
Thanks for your musings, dear Muse.
Our search engineered world means you can have hours of fun looking up your own name & seeing who you aren’t. You see, I’m not the former chairman of the British Franchising Association. Neither am I Robin Hood under another false name. But what if I was? Ooooh!
2) The Face is Familiar
Another way we may be misled – and this must be the bugbear of the organisers of police identity parades is thinking you recognise someone, and they don’t turn out to be who you think they actually are… and breath. I guess that was my experience with Claire du café.
I’m reminded of a call to the great Danny Baker’s radio phone-in some years back. The subject was rainy days at the British seaside. A caller said that one wet Wednesday afternoon, he and his wife decided they be better off taking in a matinée at the cinema. It was the mid-Sixties and “Lawrence of Arabia” was doing the rounds. The man was drawn into this luxurious adventure. We come to that star-making scene-stealing moment when a then unknown Omar Sharif first appears as Sherif Ali. We see him ride across the desert on his camel. At first a dot on the horizon, eventually right in front of our eyes. And as Sharif removes his scarf to reveal those distinctive features, the woman whispered to her husband “Isn’t that Terry-Thomas?” The moment lost…
If you have suffered the disappointment of mistaken identity, well put it down to experience. You’ve possibly caused the same thing to happen for someone else.
So it wasn’t Claire outside Starbucks that tea-time. I know this for sure because, as I went by on the bus, looking past the impostor and into the shop window… there was the real Claire sat at the front table indulging in this weeks highlighted beverage.
Now if you’ll excuse me I have to rob from the rich to give to the British Franchising Association.
Tips for Forty-somethings
Go longer between haircuts for that great “lot cut off” feeling.
Word from the Webster-Wise 
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