John's favourite days off are the ones where he doesn't get a call from the clinic asking him to come in as another doctor has called in sick or there has been an emergency.
Ones where when he goes off to run errands, whether shopping or paying bills, and doesn't find himself in the back of a black luxury car wondering what the 'minor official' has to ask him today.
He likes it when he can give Mrs. Hudson a friendly hello on his way out the door rather than her coming up to inform the two of them what will be added to the rent that week due to 'experiments' and 'boredom'. He briefly wonders what would happen to him if he began to think it was normal to nail a severed hand to the inside of a cupboard to see how quickly a third party would notice the smell. (Incidentally, it took two days and it was a plumber who found it. At least they got the job done for free after the man took off, although the look on Greg's face when he arrived quickly put a dampener on that).
Even though he won't lie in for long, he prefers to get up on his own terms rather than being woken early by:
Disjointed violin. In fact, any violin
Loud noises (including: explosions, gunfire and yelling)
Sherlock telling him they have a case and to get up as he's had at least three hours sleep and not to be lazy like his brother
Early morning drugs busts (usually after they've been out late on a case and have evidence they shouldn't)
Eerie calm, that can be worse than all of them put together and often just as dangerous
But John can admit to himself that these little things are what make his life interesting, that keep away the cane and have him jumping out of bed in the morning with purpose. They may be the things he dreams of when planning a day off but for every other day of the month he wouldn't have it any other way.