The Gift Of Time

May 5, 2015 by Ray Morgan

The Gift Of Time

I don't know about you, but I do the whole full time job thing. I'm not complaining; I have a job that I enjoy, cool colleagues, and I get to drink a lot of tea and eat biscuits and get out of the office at 5.30 on the dot.

HOWEVER. Bank Holidays are a bit good, aren't they? It's like the universe saying "C'mon. You've worked really hard since Christmas, I've been watching. So here's an extra day. Take it. Go on. It's yours. Some shops will be closed, but don't freak out about it, ok?" Please note the universe ALSO decided to package the day up with decent weather this year. And wasn't it GOOD?

Bank Holiday weekends are a free pass to chill the heck out, or see friends, or spend time with family, or "do the garden" (I hear this a lot; I don't have a garden but it's apparently a thing). My sister and I treated our lovely Mum to afternoon tea in London on Saturday - not the sort of thing we do all the time, so it was a major treat. We also used to excuse of being in London to do things like go to an exhibition, go to Cath Kidston HQ in Covent Garden, drink cocktails 6 floors up, and get a black cab. Big time treats. It was lovely, but VERY tiring, but it didn't matter, because we still had two whole days left!

The rest of the weekend was spent very much chilled out indeed. I watched films. I made proper cafetiere coffee. I baked a cake. I spent 2 hours on the beach, lying on a rug in the sun, hearing the gentle lap of the tide, and marvelled at the 95 year old woman who swims at high tide. When else do I get a chance to do that? I caught up with friends, read some of my book, and pottered around the flat sorting through clothes and making everything tidy and nice.

We live such busy lives now: everything's fast, busy, my diary is pretty much block-booked, and with work and personal emails on my phone I'm never really off duty or completely cut off from Things To Do. Even if you had to work this Bank Holiday, try to take a couple of days with not many plans at all - do all the things you wish you had time for but say you don't. It's good for the soul. And it makes coming back to work much, much easier.

My top 5 things about this weekend:

1. Afternoon tea at the Dorchester. FANCY!2. Being able to wander down to the beach (I know, I'm very lucky)
3. Hanging out with my Mum and Sis, and generally having a hoot
4. Lazy breakfast at The Squeeze in Leigh (oh my, the food there is lush)
5. When Jo made a Mexican salad that involved grilling avocado. I know. Sounds mental. Tastes: delicious.