How bloody good is a three day weekend? You reach Sunday night and wait for that impending work dread to kick in and then you remember it’s Anzac Day and you don’t have to go to work. How sweet is that? I love public holidays. Although I work for myself which means that I don’t get paid to have them off like everyone else, I love them because no one else is working. This means there are no emails from clients or editors and no one requesting meetings. I can work on the things I really want to work on and maybe clock off a few hours early and do something very lovely. For those of you that struggle to think of awesome thing to do on a public holiday, this one is for you.
1. Read a book outside
Winter hasn’t quite kicked in yet in Australia so grab a picnic blanket, a book and a thermos of tea and find a sunny spot to spend the afternoon. It’s just about the most wholesome thing you can do on a public holiday afternoon. You could even have a biscuit with your tea. It’s not a crime.
2. Go to the zoo
Most zoos are open on public holidays and they’re usually quite because most people assume they’ll be really busy. Pack a picnic and go for a lovely walk and visit all the animals, especially the monkeys. You can’t be anything but totally delighted when you’re looking at monkeys.
3. Host a tea party
Give your favourite few friends a call, get them to come over with something they baked and host a lovely tea party in the afternoon. This is perfect for people with kids who need to keep them occupied for an extra day this week. Get the kids the help you prepare – bake something yummy, set the table – it will keep them occupied for hours.
4. Dress up in cute work gear and tidy your house
Sometimes when I really have to give my house a good clean and I’m struggling to get my motivation up, I’ll ‘dress up’ to make it more fun. I have a pair of old overalls I wear with a little scarf that I tie around my head and I’ll pop on some lipstick too. It seems silly but it makes cleaning up so much more fun when you look like you’re from a movie montage in 1952.
5. Eat a cuisine you’ve never tried before
Ethiopian, Armenian, Turkish, Japanese. If you constantly find yourself going to the same Thai place every week, pick something new. Don’t overthink it – just Google restaurants near you and give it a go. I can highly recommend Ethiopian food if you never tried it – it’s amazing.
6. E-learn something
If you’ve been wanting to learn French, coding, knitting or singing why not start right now? Jump on Envato, Khan Academy or Coursera to get an online course in almost anything. Time spent learning is never time wasted so put aside a few hours to do something you’ve always wanted to do.
7. See two movies back to back
How often do you get the chance to do that? Lots of movie theatres do cheap tickets on Mondays and that’s usually when public holidays fall. Take advantage and spend a few hours escaping at the movies. You can even get popcorn. I totally won’t tell anyone.
8. Do a hike in your nearest national park
Every time I visit another state in Australia, I always go to their national parks and go for hikes but I rarely take the time to do it in my own state. If you live near a national park, go for a drive there and do one of the walks. Australian national parks are incredible and we’re so lucky that they’re mostly well maintained and looked after. You won’t regret it. All that oxygen will set you up for a brilliant week, I promise.
9. Put on your favourite Netflix show and get your mending done
If you’ve got a few shirts to iron, a hemline to re-stitch and a few buttons to sew on, do it today. Set yourself up on the couch and slowly work your way through your mending mile. You’ll get to watch your favourite show (guilt-free) and you’ll get a marvellous sense of satisfaction when you’re done.
I’m spending the day getting some work done and designing my first ever crochet project – it’s not going very well so far but when it starts to resemble what it’s supposed to be, I’ll definitely show you guys.
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What are are your favourite things to get up to on a public holiday? Is it a holiday for you today? What are you doing?
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6 Comments
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Well, its not a 3 day weekend here in the US, but hte weather is just starting to turn warm. I love walking. I need to get another dog, but I don’t want to have to walk it in the winter…sigh. My sister lost a ton of weight after they got their dog. I like the zoo too. Haven’t done that in years!
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We’re pretty close to getting a do but we already walk a lot anyway so I don’t think it would make that much of a difference to us! You should def go to the zoo – you won’t regret it!
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We were going to go camping but didn’t get organised early enough. We had quite an active weekend so today we just took a walk around the park and now plan to just be couch potatoes for the rest of the day. I’m just catching up on blogs with a cup of coffee. Perfect. 🙂
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I adore couch potato style weekends. I actually try to have one every second weekend. I crochet, Mr Smaggle plays around with his cameras and we go for walks and binge watch Netflix. It’s ace.
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Well, there was the Dawn Service this morning, and now I’m at work. But come 2pm I’m riding my bike home and, now that I’ve read your post, I will be crocheting granny squares whilst watching season 2 of Twin Peaks! Probably with a glass of wine. I was going to do a juice cleanse, but public holiday = no pay day until tomorrow and those suckers are expensive so, wine instead! Because that makes perfect sense.
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That’s sounds totally perfect! I love inspiring people to crochet – it’s the best. I do it every day. I wouldn’t stress about doing a juice cleanse or spending the money on them. The research around them is really iffy – you’d be better off just eating a shit load of veggies instead.
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