Coronavirus diary, Monday 31 August

Bank holiday Monday. A day for pleasure and treasure. But for me, for many years, it was a day to be endured. Before the Bank Holiday Act of 1861 working people had no paid days off. Now they could enjoy four a year. Strangely, Good Friday and Christmas Day were not included as they were considered 'traditional days of rest'. That was changed with the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971. 

It is more complicated in the USA with no 'national holidays'. The public holidays include the birthdays of Martin Luther King and George Washington, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. It is for the states to designate others. In Britain, unions are seeking another bank holiday between August and Christmas. In Wales there is still a claim for a St David’s Day holiday. 

My earliest memories of bank holidays are of utter boredom. Dead days. Nothing to do. The British Broadcasting Company formed in 1924 became the British Broadcasting Corporation in 1926 - the year I was born. Under its founder, John Reith, a strict, dour Scottish Presbyterian, broadcasting was a serious, straight-laced experience. Inform and educate, but there was not a trace of entertain. It was a desert. No drama, no comedy, no dance bands. The only music I remember in my young days was the tinkling of the 'palm court orchestra' in Bournemouth, I think. 

In West Ham where we lived there was not even a local park. I could not wait to get back to school. Bank holidays improved over the years, of course. but I never got over those stultifying early ones. I admit I did enjoy some - going to the Hampton Court fair when we lived in Twickenham, and a rare holiday break in Cardiff. And there were places to go and enjoy ourselves. 

More recently, living on the Penarth sea front, we had no need to venture onto jam packed roads to beach or countryside. But I was still impatient to get back to the normal life and work- not a good trait, I admit, and one, looking back, I regret. No boredom or impatience at Sunrise today, I have plenty to do; reading the paper, chatting with the carers, watching television and writing this diary.