BLOG: The Post Long Weekend Blues

It’s been a long time since the last one.  We were all starting to feel a bit antsy.  Tempers were short, nerves were getting frayed as we all waited for the drought to be over and finally got our first long weekend in 6 months!  Of course in Hawke’s Bay we’re blessed with not just three but four days off.  Are we really that blessed though?  Many in the Bay get quite confused by the long, long weekend and are adamant the Hawke’s Bay show runs not just on the weekdays but on Saturday too.  This is not the case, much to the disappointment of the people who on Friday thought “Oh, it’s raining, we’ll go to the show tomorrow” only to turn up the next day and find no one there.  Another downside to our long, long weekend is that we get lulled into a false sense of holiday.  Two days is a weekend, three days is a long weekend, but four days?  Holiday time!  The problem with that is you are just starting to relax and then WHAM!  Reality slaps you in the face and you spend the next four days trying to get out of holiday mode and back into your work.  This is only applicable for the people who actually get the long, long weekend off.  There are many who work through.  And boy do they love to tell you about it!  A word of advice; do not mention the four day weekend to anyone who will not be having all four days off.  This will automatically cause them to launch into a tirade that will go something like this:  “Oh, nice for some, wish I could have a long weekend but some people actually have to work through.  Not everybody gets four days off you know, in fact I can’t even remember the last time I had one day off, let alone a weekend….” You can start to tune out about here as they will go on repeating themselves until you finally agree that no one deserves to have a long weekend, in fact we should all feel guilty for even having time off to go home and sleep!  The drought is now broken and our next communal day off, Christmas, is just 8 weeks away!  Wait, 8 weeks?  Bring back the drought, we’re not ready!