Although the Dowager Countess of Downton Abbey, as played by Maggie Smith, did not know what a weekend was, I think they are one of modern-day life's best inventions.
You just need to read some of the 19th-century novels about the industrial north by Dickens and Gaskell, for example, to realise that we've got it pretty good these days. The working day is legally down to about 8 hours a day and most people around the world get two days off every week; some only get 1 day a week off.
Just imagine! Two days off every week. Wonderful stuff. Yes, one might have to do some household chores, but you'd do that in normal holiday time, too.
I've just spent a wonderfully indulgent two days: hours of reading in the library on Saturday morning, my favourite Saturday lunch down in the Asian place, coffee with digestive biscuits (gluten-free, naturally) in the library, and a walk in stunningly beautiful countryside along the Düssel on Saturday afternoon. Then I find there is a new series of Shakespeare and Hathaway, which I can watch on dailymotion.com.
Sunday is equally good: the newspapers online, more episodes of Shakespeare and Hathaway, another performance of Kinky Boots at the cinema (with popcorn, of course), then off to the university library to get another book out and read some journals (including one on Sherlock Holmes), back home for tea and more S&H and then a new season of Endeavour on ITV.
And no need to work at all. Heaven. Praise be to the weekend.
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Sounds a perfect weekend for you. :)
ReplyDeleteSounds very nice. S&H just started here a week. IMO, not as good as the earlier series, but still acceptable.
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