In praise of duvet days...

April 11, 2016 by Ray Morgan

In praise of duvet days

When I was a teenager, and there was a non-pupil day, I used to go round to my best friend's house, and we would sit under blankets in her living room, drink huge mugs of tea and, inexplicably, eat heaps of dry cereal (Coco Pops) and cheddar cheese on Krackawheat crackers, and always watch Basketball Diaries. Yes, that's right, the massively depressing film about drug addiction. But how we loved Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Wahlberg! What a great day!

Often, it would be sunny outside, but the draw of a gripping film and staying indoors when you'd otherwise be at school was too good.

As an adult, the 'Duvet Day' is an almost mythical being. We're a bit busy, aren't we? We're working, some of us have kids, some run their own businesses or are trying to bash out a novel in between gruelling 5-day weeks. Or something.

Where I work, a sales incentive was recently introduced where you could potentially win a 'Duvet Day' - an extra day's paid leave. How amazing would that be? When you work for companies where you get the standard number of days' leave, or you run your own business and a day off means no takings, you really value a day to yourself.

I grew up with my whole family working in education, where the next holiday is only ever a few weeks away, and the summer stretches out like a rubber band. The Christmas and Easter holidays garner two whole weeks off; amazing to us non-schooly people. It's incredible how much you crave that when you know your summer holiday will be in September, when the kids have gone back, and have forgotten how to hold a handwriting pen after all those weeks running around in sprinklers (that's what they do, right?)

However, it means you have to be savvy with your time off. I love that. I like being particularly thrifty in the early part of the year, where we're blessed with Bank Holidays. Saving it up for the Autumn (my favourite time of year and birthday season).

My partner works Saturdays, which sucks as we can't share that Friday feeling, but when you have to pay the rent, you do what you gotta do, especially if you work in retail or catering. But it meant that we took the opportunity to use Sunday as a Duvet Day. And yes, just like those non-pupil days of my teenage years, it was beautiful out, but we stayed in. We lounged under blankets in the living room wearing trousers with elasticated waistbands, drinking pots of tea, eating junk food and watching two Rocky movies back to back. We caught up on TV we'd missed on account of being so busy. We read our books, meditated, cooked a delicious veggie roast dinner. It was bliss.

Taking a Duvet Day is always worth it. When you're a busy person whose diary makes you feel slightly panicky when you glance at what's coming up, take a day. I promise you won't regret it.

Read all of Ray's previous blog's here https://www.leigh-on-sea.com/tag/listing/blog/ray-morgan