Finding good excuses to snuggle down

I LIKE to think we welcome visitors to the Westcountry, but there have been a few over the last couple of years I could have done with out. I'm talking Henk, Isha, Jocelyn, Kathleen, Lilian, Ashley, Bert, Conall, Darragh, and the latest bad boy, Eowyn! Yes, storms!

- JUDI SPIERS

Still, on the positive side, they have given me, and I'm sure a fair few of you, the chance to indulge in the odd 'duvet day'. So much nicer than saying you're 'throwing a sickie', don't you think?

No pretence needed... well, unless it's to the bosses... just a day snuggling down, with or without a duvet, to read a book, listen to the radio, watch a dreadful old box set and eat a bumper bag of Revels (as if) or just snooze!

Actually, no pretence is needed if you worked for a company called August One Communications, which, in 1997, coined the phrase 'duvet day' as a way to describe giving a day off to employees for rest and relaxation, not necessarily due to illness.

So essentially a day to somewhat paradoxically 'chill out' under a warm duvet!