Saturn Day and Newday

Those who know me well know how much I love Saturday mornings. A chance to, upon waking, lie in bed and contemplate the universe and the meaning of life or to do more productive things. It also gives me the rare opportunity to just be awake in my bedroom.

When I eventually get up (not too late as the days of sleeping all morning are long gone - I now feel as if I'm wasting a day if I sleep after 10am) I love the Saturday morning 'pottering about' stage which I realise, makes me sound really old. But 'pottering about', especially while wearing a dressing gown, is a vastly underrated activity. Some people do their pottering on a Sunday. But the danger of pottering on Sundays is that the pottering stage goes on for far too long and this IS NOT A GOOD THING. Saturday pottering only lasts about an hour before you have to stop pottering  and actually start doing things.

Some Saturday mornings I do housework. This really depends on how the week has been and what houseworky things have  already been done.  I put on some music and wash and dust until my home is clean and shiny and I feel as if I have had a bit of a workout. Then I can get on with my plans for the day which is usually to see friends or family and  just enjoy not being at work.

This morning, in the contemplation stage of my routine I had an idea.

The 8 day week.

Like most of my brainwaves I soon discover that someone had already beat me to it. In this case the concept had been tried out ages ago. The Romans used the 8 day 'Market Week' for a period of time. Of course I had been aware of the various calenders that humanity have created over time but hadn't realised that before settling on the one we have our ancestors had been very experimental. Even the bloody Beatles sang about the 8 day week 50 years ago. They failed to mention planets or the impact on the economy or the advantages or disadvantages of having an extra day in the week but focused on the extra day of love. They should have considered the impact of this extra day of loving on ones physical and mental health and thrown in a 9th day for recovery.

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/b/beatles/eight+days+a+week_10026469.html

There are some people already living in their own 8 day week.

http://www.theeightdayweek.com/

However unlike theeightdayweek which involves shortening the days my concept was for an extra whole day that everyone in the world has. Mainly because all the extra days pay at the end of the longer month would be very welcome. It would surely help the economy as whenever a day of work is lost through strikes or because of the weather the news always reports that the lost day has cost the economy millions so surely an extra week day will pour millions into the economy. We will all have extra money at the end of the week to spend.

Children will get an extra day of learning so will become cleverer, the school holidays will be longer so the teachers will be happy and football fixtures will be easier to arrange.

I would have time to read my emails.

There will be an extra day between my weighing at Weight Watchers so I will lose even more weight each week.

We will all get longer in which to repay loans.

Mortgages will be over a longer time span so more people will be able to buy their own homes.

And best of all we will all stay younger longer. If this had started the year I was born I would only be in my 40s now.

There are even suggestions of a 10 day week. I was having trouble thinking of a name for my extra week day and eventually decided on 'Newday' so I was delighted to discover that the Archetype Calender has already names for all the extra days.

http://www.hermetic.ch/cal_stud/arch_cal/arch_cal.htm

Someone, of course would have to be made Minister of Newday, so that they could make sure people did not abuse it. There would have to be 'Newday Regulations' in order to make it work. For example -

Zero Interest to be added for the Newday for existing loans

Those who can work from home do so on Newdays

Business emails can be read, but not responded to, on Newdays

Newday curriculum at schools to focus on philosophy and the community

Minimum pay to be increased by 10% for those who work on Newday

Newday tax relief for low paid Newday workers

No soap omnibus' on Newday

To make things easier Newday will have to be slotted between Wednesday and Thursday. That way we still get the TGIF feeling.

Happy Saturn Day x