2006!

2006 is a great year to start work! whoo hoo.

Exerpt from a Straits Times article today:

Bumper crop of long weekends next year
By Melissa Sim
THE 'Deepa-Raya' week may be over but here is the good news: There are seven long weekends to look forward to next year.
And with some careful planning, the savvy leave-taker can have 43 rest days by taking just nine days of annual leave. Next year's calendar is packed with long weekends because most of the public holidays fall on Fridays, Sundays or Mondays. For example, the first and second days of Chinese New Year, traditional public holidays, fall on a Sunday and Monday (Jan 29 and Jan 30), a natural long weekend. But workers also get an additional day off on Tuesday (Jan 31). This is because when a public holiday falls on Sunday, the next day is a public holiday. But since the second day of Chinese New Year is on Monday and is also a public holiday, the long weekend extends to Tuesday. It can stretch even further too - those who care to plan in advance can take three days of leave from Feb 1 to Feb 3 and get a nine-day break from Jan 28 to Feb 5.
Another bumper long weekend comes at the end of December, when there are another two public holidays back to back. Hari Raya Haji falls on Dec 31, a Sunday. The next day is New Year's Day, so workers get Tuesday off too. Aside from Dec 31, there is a second Hari Raya Haji holiday next year, on Jan 10. Islamic Fellowship Association secretary-general Ameerali Abdeali explained that this happens because the Muslim calendar, a purely lunar calendar, is 11 days shorter than the solar or Gregorian calendar. As the Muslim calendar does not have leap years to offset the number of days lost in the solar calendar, Muslim festivals move forwards through the solar calendar by 11 days every year.