Plus ça change

Here in Canada the weekend that has passed was Thanksgiving  – and thus a holiday or long weekend.

There are – in British Columbia – five national and five provincial statutory holidays, plus Easter Monday – which is a bank holiday (statutory for government employees only) and Boxing Day (which is not actually a stat holiday but is widely observed).

By comparison public holidays in the UK vary from eight (for England) to eleven (for Northern Ireland).

One fact that is indisputable is that public holidays here in BC are more evenly distributed throughout the year than are the UK equivalents – and certainly the English ones (two holidays in May – nothing until the end of August!)

One other seemingly inescapable ‘fact’ is that if there is to be bank holiday in the UK it is probably also going to rain. Now – statistically this probably isn’t actually the case, though it is true that the English weather stats do demonstrate that the end of August is a particularly poor choice of time for a day off, given that the rainfall then is often greater than it is during equivalent periods in the winter months.

However, one need only feed Google the inquiry “Does it always rain on bank holidays?” to be left in no doubt at all that as far as the English are concerned the answer is resoundingly in the affirmative.

It hardly need be said – I feel – that though the weather here has been reasonably good of late and the sun is shining once again as I write – over the holiday weekend itself the clouds scudded in and it rained steadily and determinedly throughout.

This expat felt right at home!