Labour day: best banner....

Busy day today. I went from the diligent to the decadent in two easy steps. 

First up, S cancelled our lesson. I was delighted. Not that I don't love him, by we both have busy lives. I bumped into him later in town and we spent some time together. 

Suddenly, it was Spring today. I tried on about 300 outfits and decided that what I really needed  was a denim jacket. In the first charity shop, I found one for 3.99! It's not a classic jean jacket, but a longer, looser garment, with embroidery. I bought it. 

First, I went down to the Sub rooms to see some May Morris dancing. Someone was gamrly trying to teach a dance to children and toddlers, so I left. The Green Man was there, I observed. 

Next, I went to Bank Gardens for the Labour day rally, now organized by the Stroud Trades Union Council. None of the Labour party was there with their splendid banners. The story was that they were at the election count, but there have been schisms within the Stroud Labour party. I won't go on about it, but I missed their banners. I still haven't decided who I shall vote for come the general election. In 2019,  the Green party split the vote in our key marginal seat, and as a result we got a Conservative MP for five years. Looks as if I have time to make up my mind, though. 

There were speeches, and banners (Somerset Mendips won my prize, though their speaker was the shouty kind) and then the Stroud Red Band started playing, and the flag-twirler was twirling acrobatically, and we marched around town in the sunshine, while people stood and watched and took photos. Some traffic even had to stop, though much of the route is pedestrianises. I carried one end of the Solidarity banner for a while (the Solidarity group was set up in 2022 to oppose the distribution of The Light free newspaper on Stroud's streets). 

Then we had some more rousing tunes when we got back to the gardens, and eventually people started talking about going to the pub.I went off to meet a friend but not before Adam Horovitz, the famous poet, had asked me if he could use one of my poems in his class that he's teaching. Yay! I wrote it 30 years ago, but this interchange made me feel like a poet again.

Friend K and I had lunch (well, I had raspberry vegan gelato and oat cappuccino and she had Mexican tostaditad and Cuban-style yam and plantain chips,cas if we were both at a festival) outside. The grass was AstroTurf and it was so wet that it squleched like a bog. We talked about our forthcoming holiday to Ireland. Three weeks to go! 

Then I went home, after my little walk with student S, and ironed some clothes for GG's party. She is 80, and was having a garden party with caterers and booze and so on. Lovely, and we had perfect weather for it! I met the Finnish neighbours, who were delightful. One of them belongs to the radical reading group. I might try that one day. 

The midges started biting my head viciously at around 6pm, but no one went inside. Instead, they discussed the differences between midges and mosquitoes. I found this odd, but concentrated on talking to people and drinking prosecco to distract me from the wee beasties. There were some fascinating people there, and some people from classes whom I haven't seen for years because they've only been held on Zoom since CoVid struck. 

Friend G dragged me away at 7, which was a shame, but I didn't want to walk as I was bout 4 miles from my home. CleanSteve was in bed watching snooker or something (he's had an illness - was it CoVid again? - and been doing electoral duties) so I got in and watched a programme, but fell asleep before the end. 
The rest of the evening has been spent lolling around.  Afternoon drinks parties are killers.  GG has recruited me to help clear up tomorrow. Her cleaner has gone to Weston-super-Mare for the bank holiday, apparently. Deep joy awaits.