Q Day 10 To See the Sea

Q Day 10 - To See the Sea

It is the last day of my quarantine, and it's a Monday.

Monday's seem to get bad press. What with The Boomtown Rats (1979) 'I Don't Like Mondays' and the Mammas and Pappas (1966) entirely negative 'Monday Monday', popular music has reflected the working person's lament over the loss of freedom of the Weekend in a glass half empty manner, while Garfield (the comic cat) didn't like Monday because it was left-over lasagne day, not fresh.

If Sunday (the sun's day) is the final day of the week, hence the day of rest, then Monday ("mondandaeg" in Anglo Saxon, in Latin - dies lunae) is the Moon's day and, according to international standard ISO 8601, is the beginning of a new week. So why the bad press?

Some might say that after the relative freedom of the Weekend, Monday is a reminder that we are all shackled to the weekly drudge and, having little choice, must endure five days of graft before being free again. But is it?

While many might adopt a negative attitude towards working for a living, there are those who simply don't. A great many people actually look forward to going back to work on Monday, away from the tedium of Saturday and Sunday and look forward to being with work colleagues, tackling problems and the stimulus of being productive.

One of the things that shocked me in Malaysia, when I first went, was that people were expected to work half day on Saturdays. Saturday half-day working, for most British, began because of low wages in the 1870s, but was gradually phased out from the 1930s onward. Malaysia is changing, just as Britain did.

For me, today, Monday, I rejoice. My freedom awaits on the morrow. Ten days of imprisonment in a bedroom is enough. I long to eat real food again, not microwaved diahorreah inducing pseudo cuisine. 

As Queen (1984) sang 'God knows, God knows I want to break free', like Anthony Hope's 'The Prisoner of Zenda' (1894), or Alexandra Dumas 'The Count of Monte Cristo' (1895). After four years I want to finally experience Mersea Island again, see the sea and walk the cockle and mussel beaches, smell the brine and finally feel the sea breeze upon my face.