A short piece which resulted from a conversation with a man on the train.

Monday, Monday by Gerry Hancock

T.G.I.F. Yeah! Bring on the weekend – free-time and lots of things to do. You can't beat that weekend feeling!

Well for some perhaps but not for all. For others, maybe more than we realise at times, the two day break from work is not so welcome. For some it is a long blank period with nothing to distinguish the day, hardly any reason to get out of bed. They are not bar-flies or clubbers, not habituees of fashionable restaurants or galleries. They have no families to chivy and organise for outings or picnics by the sea or in the country, nor visits to great houses and castles.

They are the weekend lonely, hurting people who don't fit in or have seen life pass them by. They are the eternally shy who slip away from work on Friday evening – that solitary source of personal contact no matter how shallow – to spend two dreary days wishing it was Monday