Is anyone keeping track of all these bank holidays?

Today I woke up in a blind panic, convinced that I should be at work. “But wasn’t last Monday a bank holiday too?” I asked my husband.

It is by far the most confusing time of year, when you don’t know what’s what and when’s when, and you find yourself asking over and over: “What day is it?”

Knowing the actual date is a challenge, although the royal wedding has helped, because only a cave-dwelling hermit would have been able to avoid the razzmatazz surrounding that event.

Of course, it’s great to have extra days off work, but do we really want so many at one time?

It throws everything out of synch. Like putting out the rubbish. The re-scheduled timetable that gets shoved through the door is six pages thick and as easy to understand as a maths A-level paper. ‘Thursday collection for green bins is now Tuesday, but the following week it is Wednesday, and grey bins are now collected two days after the normal collection time, only not in certain areas where it will be three days’, and so it goes on.

This is the worst time of year to need a doctor or dentist in a hurry. Or a vet. I remember when a cat we owned years ago fell off a roof on bank holiday Monday and we had to trek miles to an emergency clinic.

Even those much-hated call centres for banks and other businesses shut down, leaving you even more frustrated than you usually become after speaking to them.

You don’t know what’s closed and what isn’t. Popping to the shops necessitates a quick call to check they’re open. I like the idea of supermarkets closing occasionally, but we are so accustomed to 24-hour availability that we usually fail to stock sufficient basics. I’ve found myself, on more than one occasion, driving to garages to buy milk and bread.

More disturbing is the fact that many people can’t properly function without their daily supermarket fix. A checkout operator at my local store told me that people were actually queuing outside last Monday after the Sunday shut-down.

Those of us who don’t ever go anywhere on bank holidays can easily lose track of time. The idea of being stuck in traffic is too off-putting, so we stay at home doing not very much, so one day blends into another.

I’m all for extra days off, but not so many at one time. I’m in the camp which believes we should move one to the end of the year. November would be good – when it’s cold outside and we can snuggle back under the duvet.