I don’t really celebrate birthdays much any more - no real presents, parties, etc - but i do always book it off just so i can have a proper lie-in. Until a few months ago i was up at 5am five or six days a week so it was a nice treat. We were always allowed our birthdays off school as kids.
I’d struggle to magic up an argument that any day spent relaxing and doing your own thing instead of carrying out mundane paid duties for tories is a negative thing rather than a positive. It’s probably the sort of churlish thing i’d have tried pulling a few years ago, but we’ve all grown up now haven’t we…?
To be honest, i don’t like long holidays. I don’t know how people go away for fortnights at a time. I get really homesick after a few days. For me 4-5 days is optimum time for a holiday, so i’d prefer to use my holidays to book, say, Wednesday-Friday off three or four times a year and have a couple of domestic and a couple of trips abroad and then use any other days here and there.
Last year i used most of my holidays finishing early over the summer (so a 7-1 instead of a 7-4, but still on full pay) and spent my afternoons exercising, sunbathing, reading, cooking properly, etc, and a few weeks of doing that was miles more beneficial than a week abroad every six months.