Take Away English-Bank Holiday DIY 公假日自己动手做（在线收听）

Ready to paint some walls?

Whenever there’s a Bank Holiday weekend in Britain, a certain kind of shop always gets very busy, and it’s not what you might think – clothes shops or music shops. The British flock to DIY stores and garden centres and huge numbers of people spend their days off doing home improvements instead of relaxing!

Doing DIY is very popular in Britain, and there are lots of TV programmes which show people how to improve their homes.

Some people stick to simple decorating – putting up wall-paper and painting walls. But there are all sorts of DIY projects that some people decide to take on, from laying new flooring, to plumbing, such as putting in a new shower, or tiling walls.

Unfortunately, some people bite off more than they can chew, and start doing a job which ends in DIY disaster. For example, it’s recommended that anything electrical should be done by a qualified electrician, but many people ignore this warning and put themselves in danger.

There is also a huge market for flat-pack furniture which you put together yourself with a few basic tools. Often people who are not very savvy about DIY find the supposedly simple instructions impossible to follow, and it’s easy to build a piece of furniture which is unstable or just not very attractive!

Gardening is also popular, and a good way to enjoy the weather on a sunny Bank Holiday. But it’s not as simple as planting plants and doing some weeding. More complicated work such as building a new patio or some decking can cause some stress and back-ache!

So why do people do it? Who knows, maybe we are so used to working that we aren’t very good at relaxing. One thing’s for sure, though a lot of DIY or gardening projects will be started with the best intentions during the Bank Holiday weekend, many of them may not get finished!