Does anyone do any work around here?

Came home to Vilnius on Monday. Discovered that Thursday, 1 May, was a public holiday (don't think it has always been that in recent years), which meant that Friday was automatically also a public holiday (people work off this bridging day on a designated Saturday). On Saturday discovered that Monday is a public holiday because Mother's Day, 4 May, fell on a Sunday.

A 5-day weekend! That's really irritating when you come back here to see people, and all you get is holidays (though the person I really needed to see gave up a bit of her Thursday for me, which was nice).

Mr Algirdas Sysas, the chairman of the social affairs committee of the Parliament, and a guy who I respect enormously (what vision!), apparently was not too bothered about this, saying that Lithuanians work almost the longest hours in Europe, so this is ok.

Not sure that everyone works the longest hours in Europe - the military police opposite my flat usually deserts its posts not much after 1pm on a 'working' Saturday.