Bank Holidays – you either love them or hate them. I suppose I fall into both camps. There are good elements and there are bad. But does one outweigh the other? Let’s have a look: First the downside: l Out-of-town shopping centre madness: I try to avoid these places, particularly on Bank Holidays, when the world and his wife descends upon them.

On the rare occasions when I do go – out of utter necessity – I’m appalled by the number of families trailing around; parents literally dragging miserable-looking kids from Next to M&S to Boots and back again. It doesn’t seem to enter their heads that there are dozens of free family-friendly attractions that children would love, where they can run around in the fresh air and use up some energy. Instead, youngsters spend days hanging onto their parents’ shirt tails in hot, claustrophobic chain stores.

l Traffic chaos: it doesn’t take a genius to work out which roads are going to be choc-a-bloc, but still everyone makes a beeline for them. The main roads to the coast can easily be avoided, and minor roads are far more scenic, but few consider using them. Instead people sit in their tin boxes, bumper-to-bumper, for hours on end. The term ‘glutton for punishment’ springs to mind.

l Easter foreign getaways: almost every year we see footage of long queues of people in sticky airport lounges, waiting for delayed flights. Yet we still flock abroad for the break.

l DIY: Easter Bank Holiday is the peak of the DIY calendar, when people descend upon B&Q in droves, loading their cars with all manner of grout, sandpaper and cement. With four days off in a row we feel an overwhelming compulsion to tackle cracks in walls, holes in woodwork, loose tiles and all the other home defects we have grumbled about the rest of the year.

Now the plus points: l Time off work: no-one would argue that this is the biggest advantage of Bank Holidays, although with our obsession with shopping, a great number of people work on virtually all of them.

l Gardening: with everyone out on the road or shopping, it is relaxing to spend the day in the garden doing a little weeding or hoeing, then sitting in the sun – which will hopefully be shining – with a nice cool drink, to admire your handiwork.

l A day out: in this part of the world it is not difficult to find somewhere off the beaten track where you can enjoy a leisurely stroll. I remember walking one Bank Holiday with my husband in the Yorkshire Wolds and not meeting one other person.

l The chance to do nothing: it is not often that any of us do absolutely nothing. If you don’t make plans, Bank Holidays offer this opportunity.