During my decades of work, and no matter where we lived, I always looked forward to holidays but they gazetted will be they work related. I looked forward to term breaks, annual leave, and the other periods allowing us to slow down. Holidays had meaning.

now in my 12th year of retirement, holidays have a far less substantial meaning because in terms of comparing retirement with work, “downtime“ is a constant rather than a rarity.

But of course, I value holidays for our children all full-time workers and our grandchildren who are full-time students, with the older three transitioning to work.