May-day May-day!

Can fun and comfort co-exist?

Last weekend, Mike and I were umm-ing and ahh-ing about whether to go into Oxford at 5.00am to take part in the Oxford May Day celebrations.

5 am? you say! 😱

Yes - 5 AM. On a Saturday.

Cue small violin.

On the 1st May, Oxford gathers around one of the towers and listens to a choir sing in Spring from the roof tops. Morris dancers parade through the street with bells on and accordions billowing. Most of the crowd have stayed up all night, and the pubs and cafes stay open too.

Sounds so romantic, right? So magical and fun.

Because of COVID, we haven’t really had a chance to take part in any of the Oxford traditions until now, regardless of how we feel about them, we are definitely TAO people (try anything once). Fortunately for us, this May Day landed on a Bank Holiday weekend so we’d have plenty of time to recover too. Bonus.

But we had some problems with getting there from the outskirts - no trains, no buses, and Mike couldn’t cycle because he was still recovering from his leg surgery. Mike was giving a talk the night before at the Oxford May Music festival on his work on mid-ocean ridges. So why don’t we stay in Oxford you say?

Great idea.

Except, oh, look at that… It’s as if this is a big deal this May Day malarky.

£350 a night! 😱

Mike couldn’t walk more than twenty mins with his leg. So that left us with one more option.

We could sleep on the floor of Mike’s office - one of us said.

Ha!

Is that even allowed?

Both of us instantly recoiled at the thought of a hard floor, despite the fact that we used to camp all the time pre-COVID.

We’ve gone soft.

Usually, camping = mountains or great scenery. And both of us accepted this trade off. It was worth it. But a May Day sing-song wedged into a crowd of 20,000 people? Yeah. I dunno…

But something about that morning was spectacular. I woke up full of excitement and optimism (so much so, I wonder now if I had ingested something and if so, where can I find that again?). We were both sitting on the fence about it, and Mike was busy finishing his talk and I just said:

Let’s do it. Nothing fun or memorable ever seems to be comfortable.

Which turned out to be true here too. We packed up sleeping bags and pillows, and parked at Mike’s work. When we came back from his talk where ‘they laughed, they cried, they clapped’, we bought some Prosecco and Malteasers and wondered through the music filled streets to head back to our luxurious abode on therm-a-rests in a stuffy office. Most of the students out and about would be seeing the night through, and we saw them at 5am, toppling over and struggling to stay standing.

Droves of people headed towards the tower. Students propped up on other students. Some scaled the walls of Magdalene college. At 6am the crowd fell silent. Angelic voices charged forth to ring in Spring. Everyone brought up their phones to record like some strange modern offering. Then the bells rang out. Everyone cheered! And Morris dancers led everyone down the street.

Mike and I took a sharp turn down to the Turf Tavern (a famous pub tucked away), which was open, serving baps and pints. (I had a coffee). We were oozing luck, always one step ahead, missing the busy crowds. We loved watching all the music grouped around the city, especially the brass band. Each new find was surprise. Forgetting about his leg, I hooked my arm into Mike’s and tried to swing him into a country dance. 😬

Great shot of my finger here… Excellent photo skills, obvs.

So it was a Happy May Day! It’s my favourite time of year (not just because it’s my birthday month but also because it’s amazing weather usually). So it was great to mark a new beginning to this year, which for us has lots of exciting things coming are way (we hope!).

We probably only managed 5 hours sleep that night, and we were hanging for the rest of the weekend.

Oh but… we both agreed it was fun,

and well worth the discomfort.

On the way, I spotted this quote on a bell tower and it ‘chimed’ with me 😉:

“It’s later than you think…

… But it’s never too late.”

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Is there something you’d love to do but the discomfort puts you off?