I've done jury service twice, the last occasion the whole jury was given a 10 year exemption from further jury service due to the length and nature of the trial. I also missed an already booked 2 week trip to America with my girlfriend to see family, as the case hadn't finished, the court refunded my part of holiday costs, at least my GF had a good time.
We were also given numbers and wasn't allowed to use our names except in the jury room or private areas of the court, I guess Number 23 is my unlucky number, we were also told never to return directly home after court due to the possibility of being followed.
Interesting case, but outside of actual court time, there was plenty of downtime so at times it was pretty boring.