Day 39 Friday 1st May

May Day has always been a day for festivities and frolics. In Scotland and Ireland it was Beltane, the beginning of the summer, when cattle and sheep were led up to the hills, to their summer pastures. Various ceremonies and rituals were performed to ensure their safety. Something similar still survives in Switzerland and Austria.

In England, the festivities traditionally centred around the Maypole and crowning the Queen of May. Both traditions were frowned upon by the Puritans in c17th. Many village maypoles were cut down at that time.

In modern day Britain we have invented a new folk dance, “The Physically Distanced Queuing Shuffle”. It is very simple to learn. In the approved version you do not take your partner. You line up in the car park of a supermarket the regulation two metres apart, ideally with a trolley. On the signal of the security guard everyone (except those who have become engrossed with something on their phone) start to shuffle forward, until the security guard says stop. At some point one person will make the traditional call to the phonees “Oi mate wake up the queue’s moving”. Upon hearing this the phonee will immediately run forward to their proper position in the queue. The dance then repeats until you have entered the shop.

Inside the shop a different dance takes place. It is less formal. The best way to describe it would be a chaotic gavotte, where everyone dances around each other, trying, but failing to remain two metres apart. Between them they could replace maypole dancing and Morris dancing on May Day.

Bedroom

Things are progressing. We have wallpaper, we have paint, we need to apply it to the walls, and we will be finished. More or less, unless we change our minds.

We spent most of the afternoon in B&Q buying the stuff. Not a lot of fun. I do however approve of what we had for supper. Charlie Birgam’s meals are not particularly cheap, but they are very good. I thought the lasagne we had tonight was excellent.

Happy May Day