Duvet day.

While New York had snow days and Dick Cheney went hunting for seniors, Kevin and I had a duvet day. I was recently reminded of these by my friend KMR. Why would anyone who leads the life of Reilly - assuming Reilly to be a well-fed cat - need a duvet day? Of course I could make something up about it being tough recovering from workaholism, or finally seeing off the jetlag, but the truth is, we have DVD series to watch.

A British comedy series often consists of six episodes, so perfect for snuggling under your duvet and watching straight through. My opinion on this, in contrast with some others, is that this makes for tighter writing and allows more series to be showcased and seen through.

An example of this, and one where Kevin and I disagree, is 'Queer as Folk'. The American series was good, and Kevin's argument was that the length that it ran allowed them to develop the characters, do more with them, and I can see his point, Stuart in the British series was a particularly intense and self-destructive character, the only way he could have continued was to dilute him. Nonetheless, the British series was, in my opinion, vastly superior. Tight, intense, delicious, no fat on it, a real duvet day delight. Another example, although not in quite the same way, is the series 'The Office'. The British series was side-splitting, the characters completely recognisable though writ large. The American one didn't do it for me, it just missed that keen observation of the original, bizarre since Ricky Gervais did both, but I'm sure it'll run for several series.

Off on a tangent, but is the L-Word the new Buffy? No, I don't mean the lesbian theme or even the newly introduced vampire one, but rather as a platform for new musical acts. In Buffy, 'The Bronze' was the place you could see bands you might not otherwise have known about, now, 'The Planet' seems to serve the same function. Damn good function too as I see it.

Well, the wind is blowing down the chimney, glad I'm not teaching since kids' behaviour is adversely affected by the wind, on the other hand, Britain is on half term at the moment, so in my past life pattern, I'd be here anyway and not teaching anyone anything. Like any recovering workaholic, I have my to-do list to get through today. Since it's Monday, traditionally it's washing day, so the duvet cover, along with the rest of the bedclothes are going in. I think I'll forego that other traditional Monday thing of cooking bubble and squeak, although I do like it, neither Kevin nor the Haberdashers later on would thank me for eating fried cabbage and spuds.

Too much duvet time can make the brain turn to mush, just the right amount makes for a Reilly-like life.