LAST Tuesday I returned to work after a week's holiday.

It was not a pleasant experience, driving along the road along with dozens of other long-faced motorists, all obviously suffering from post Bank Holiday blues.

Today (or tomorrow for some teachers who, as usual have added to their already lengthy-by-everyone-else's-standards break by tagging on extra training days) hundreds more people will wake up to that nightmarish journey - slogging in to the office, slouching over their desks and day-dreaming of highly-unlikely lottery jackpots.

Holidays are supposed to help recharge our batteries so we can return to work refreshed and invigorated. But, apparently, we British have entirely the wrong approach.

We holiday so hard that we return to work shattered and unable to cope.

People pack so much into so little time in a desperate bid to squeeze every last drop of pleasure out of their fortnight, week or long weekend that they burn themselves out.

I can relate to that. On the last day of our holiday we stayed on the beach so late into the evening that it was so cold we could not feel our toes.

People sit for too long in beer gardens at country pubs pondering just one more half and lie beside rivers in national parks, loathe to prise themselves off the rug. And when we have to leave we feel physically sick.

So why do we behave like this? I believe its all down to the way we live when we are not on holiday.

Unlike our Continental cousins we are consumed by work. Even when we are at home we are embroiled in jobs - domestic chores, the household finances, shopping, making meals, running the children about.

And when we do 'relax' we flop down in front of the television for a couple of hours with a take-away and a can of lager.

Few of us sit down every day, as they do across much of Europe, for a relaxing family meal that could take up to three hours of fun-filled banter and merrymaking to consume. After work we don't sit outside our homes in the evening sunshine unwinding (especially not in our case, as the sun disappears behind the local hospital incinerator before we've had chance to whip out a deckchair) with a couple of bottles of wine.

And we don't often dive energetically into the car on a Friday night and head for the coast or the hills for a leisurely weekend away. We don't do any of these things because we haven't got the time and we are too worn out to be bothered.

If we slackened the pace for the rest of the year and didn't feel this pressing need to toil from dawn to dusk, we would be altogether calmer when our holidays came around.

We would not feel the need to get up early and cram 19 hours of pleasure into each day before flopping down exhausted.

You only have to look at young people, students with no jobs and no other commitments. They have a leisurely life, don't take themselves seriously and have a great time on holiday, partying into the small hours and getting up at 3pm every day. That's not my cup of tea, but it gets the point across.

So I'm joining the Europeans. It is said we have their climate, so why not their work ethic? Expect me at my desk at 11am tomorrow.